Cold Rooms for Dark Kitchens & Food Delivery Services
The way that people order food and take away for delivery is changing – most people now order their food via an app, straight to their door. So, what impact has that had on business in the food and drink industry?
Ordering takeaway food to your door has never been easier with the rise of food delivery services – all you need to do is open an app, select what you want and get it delivered to your door! Takeaway chains often also have a front of house for people to order and collect their food – but there is a new breed of food delivery restaurant. Dark kitchens.
The majority of restaurants now offer delivery via apps, whether it be Uber, Just Eat etc. But there is a new type of take-away food provider emerging with the new technology available. Businesses are popping up who produce food for delivery – but they have no restaurant or front of house. These are dark kitchens.
What Is A Dark Kitchen?
Dark kitchens, also known as virtual kitchens, remote kitchens or ghost kitchens, are professional kitchens that only produce food for delivery. These don’t have the normal front of house of takeaways and have no seating available for customers. They are taking advantage of the changing food world to lower their overheads by having less staff and a smaller space to manage.
But just like standard takeaways, dark kitchens need an optimal form of cold storage to ensure they are offering the highest quality food products to their customers. MTCSS Contracts can offer design and installation for cold room food storage for dark kitchens across the UK.
How Are Cold Rooms Used In A Dark Kitchen?
With any hotel, restaurant or food preparation area, there is a requirement for food storage. Most foods need to be stored within a temperature-controlled environment – whether that is a chiller or freezer cold room – to ensure the quality and life of the food is maintained.
Cold rooms offer advantages over multiple standalone commercial fridges and freezers:
- They offer more space for storage.
- Better storage and organisation of products.
- Less energy requirements compared to running multiple standalone commercial fridges / freezers.
Walk in chillers and freezers supplied and installed by MTCSS are perfect for food storage as they are built with food safe and easy to clean cold rooms panels. We can also design ambient temperature-controlled areas which are perfect for hygienic food preparation areas.
When it comes to cold storage for the Food & Drink industry MTCSS can offer every solution including:
- Walk in chiller and freezers.
- Ambient rooms and we can panel existing space to ensure they are food safe.
- Food safe and easy clean shelving to organise and store food products.
- Refrigeration in the cold rooms to ensure your produce is kept cool.
- Air conditioning in kitchen areas.
- Easy clean flooring for liquid and drink storage.
Bespoke cold rooms designed by MTCSS Contracts will improve your daily processes and the functioning of your dark kitchen and food business. We work with you to understand how a temperature controlled room will fit into your business, to understand your budget and your individual requirements.
Why Does Your Dark Kitchen Need a Cold Room?
Kitchens and restaurants often only utilise upright chillers and freezers, which may be optimal when minimal refrigerated space is required. But where multiple fridges and freezers are in use, and more temperature controlled space is needed, a cold room may be the optimal solution for you.
MTCSS Contracts design and build bespoke cold rooms which are perfect for food applications, are ideal for dark kitchens and takeaway kitchens for various reasons, including:
- chiller and freezer cold rooms utilise your space more effectively than using multiple upright or chest fridges and freezers
- custom cold rooms are also often more energy efficient than using multiple fridges and freezer
- organise your food and drink products more effectively with more space and using cold room shelving
- food safe and easy to clean insulated cold room panels
- bespoke cold rooms designed to your size and shape requirements, to suit the space you have available
- internal and external cold rooms to maximise your space
- full turnkey solutions for custom cold rooms, including everything from cold room doors and cold room flooring, to insulated doors and refrigeration systems
- various temperature ranges available for walk in chillers, walk in freezers and ambient temperature controlled areas
Dark kitchens are an innovative solution in the changing food and drink industry – and MTCSS offer innovative cold storage to match. Get in touch with the MTCSS to team to enhance your dark kitchen (or your restaurant or hotel), make your products easier to store and access and improve your business processes.
