Edlund Scales Provide Savings Beyond Portion Control

Wise operators understand the importance of keeping costs in check by training staff to serve entrées and sides in consistent portions. No tool is more important to that end than a portion control scale for weighing each serving you send out to customers. Edlund equips kitchens with those valuable tools with its selection of digital and mechanical portion control scales.

The Cost of Inconsistency

The following table outlines the cost of serving inaccurate portions, either because you use inaccurate scales or don't provide staff with the tools they need to serve the correct portions.

This data demonstrates how serving portions that vary just slightly from what you intend to serve can add up quickly. Consider a hypothetical restaurant that serves a popular entrée of prime rib. The restaurant's menu lists that the prime rib is sold in 8-ounce portions, but the scale used to measure the meat is off by half an ounce, causing the steaks to leave the kitchen in 8¹⁄₂-ounce portions.

If that prime rib costs $12 a pound, then each of those extra half-ounce increments costs just under $0.40. That may not seem like much per plate, but consider if the restaurant serves 30 steaks a day, six days a week. In a year, that extra cost will add up to more than $3,500 for a single menu item.

The savings reliable scales will bring you will be even greater when they're used to measure higher-margin items. If yours is among the growing number of restaurants that offer house-cut steaks, imagine the savings an accurate scale can bring in helping serve those premium proteins in accurate portions. Consider that a quality Edlund scale costs just a few hundred dollars and you can see how the investment can quickly pay for itself.

Value Beyond Portion Control

Edlund scales bring cost-cutting value beyond just the money they can save through accurate portion control. Here are a few more ways a set of Edlund scales can consistently save you money.

Edlund Scales are Made in the United States

All of Edlund's mechanical scales and all but one series of its digital scales are made in the United States. That means the company's leadership can ensure a higher level of quality control than their peers in companies that sell commodity imports, so Edlund scales are likely to be more accurate and offer a longer service life compared to imported equipment. That accuracy and longevity has earned Edlund scales Foodservice Equipment & Supplies magazine's Best in Class Scales award for 11 years and counting.

The materials with which Edlund's engineers design their scales indicate a focus on quality. Many of their scales are built with all stainless steel components that are more resistant to damage from water, rust, and extreme ambient temperatures than the regular steel and aluminum materials that economy scales are built with. That stainless steel construction also makes many of Edlund's scales dishwasher safe, so they're easy to keep clean and sanitary.

Edlund Scales can Be Calibrated In the Field

Unlike many competitors' models, Edlund scales can be calibrated right in your kitchen without the need to bring in a technician or invest in any special tools. All that's required to calibrate a set of mechanical Edlund scales is a one-pound weight and a hexhead nut driver that's available in most retail stores or directly from Edlund. Calibrating their digital scales requires no tools.

You shouldn't just calibrate your scales after you've had them for a while. It's always recommended that you calibrate scales before your first use because the movement and impact your scales experience between the factory and your doorstep often cause them to lose calibration before you even open the box. To boot, many of Edlund's digital scales include a gravity adjustment feature, so operators in high-altitude areas can be sure their scales achieve the most accurate measurements possible.

Edlund Scales Save on Time and Labor Costs, Too

Edlund scales have the potential to save you money not just in product costs, but also in labor. Most operators who've used a set of manual scales are familiar with the annoying "wiggle" that the needle can have before it settles on the weight of the product. Edlund's manual scales solve that problem with a dashpot feature that softens that wiggle to provide a weight reading almost instantly, so members of your staff can weigh products much more quickly than they could with traditional mechanical scales.