5 mistakes to avoid while purchasing food and beverage ingredients

No recipe is successful without good-quality ingredients. As much as timing plays an important role, ingredients are equally important. Choosing the right ingredients can help you avoid delays and wastage of resources, time, and effort. 

Our industry expert and Chief of Strategy, Mr. Akshit Gupta shares insights on 5 mistakes that you, as a food and beverage manufacturer can avoid while purchasing superior-quality F&B ingredients. 

1. Background check of supplier: Before you get into the contract, do a thorough background check about the supplier’s network – how strong is the supply chain, what inventory levels they can manage, how frequently they can deliver/supply, and what are their MoQs. Along with this, also check if the supplier has multiple warehouses to eliminate high transportation and delivery charges. 
2. Global price trend: Always check the price trend of the ingredient across the globe so that you get good value for money at a competitive price. 
3. Check POs and Invoices while ordering and receiving delivery: Check for the quantity column in your purchase order each time you place an order with your supplier. If the column says “a pack of cocoa powder”, request for the exact numbers, weightage as per your requirement. And once you receive the goods, make sure to cross-check the units received and invoiced to you. Pay for what you’ve ordered. 
4. Implement good warehousing practices: It is usually noted and observed that once goods are delivered to warehouses, the handling and processing is harsh and improper. For example, your warehousing team might be using hooks on ingredient bags to place them on higher shelves, which leads to tampering with the ingredient’s shelf life and dissemination of its qualities or spillage.
5. Double-check the certification and purity claims by the supplier: If the supplier claims to comply with all food safety certifications and standards, double-check the certifications. If they claim to provide clean and pure ingredients, double-check the nutritional values, or maybe even get a sample tested by testing labs. 

Being industry experts, we suggest our esteemed clients connect with our experienced consultants across industries to get one-on-one consultation and the best deal on the food and beverage ingredients to use in their creations.