Energy use and management in production of entrees in hospital food service systems

Extract: Energy required for process stages of production of beef loaves was determined for 5 simulated hospital food service systems. Three were on-premise systems: conventional, cook/chill, and cook/freeze. Two were assembly/serve systems: thaw/heat/serve and heat/serve. Meters were used to monitor actual energy, and apportioned energy was based on percentage usable equipment space occupied by the beef loaves. Theoretical energy was calculated on the basis of temperature change, product mass, and heat capacity. The cook/chill and cook/freeze systems required more energy than the conventional system; results varied according to measure used. (author)