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Commercial Food Warmers Buying Guide

Update:27 May

For the most part, those huge open buffets that we used to love are out of the equation, at least for now. But restaurant operators still need different kinds of commercial food warmers and heated tray areas to keep all of their creations at safe temperatures, and ready for serving. Display Warmers for sale are a good addition to any type of scenario where the food in the warming trays is on display to the public.
Benefits of Commercial Food Warmers
With that in mind, restaurants really benefit from having these types of countertop food warmers on hand.
The main use of food warmers is to keep food at an appropriate temperature that’s safe for long-term storage over a number of hours.
Realistically, when you make a big batch of something, you’re not going to serve it all at once. So you need a way to keep it at an approved temperature, where potentially harmful bacteria can’t grow and threaten the health of diners. Experts refer to the “HACCP danger zone” (HACCP is short for the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point food management system recognized by the FDA) from 41° to 135°F, and experienced restaurant operators know that health inspectors pay attention to temperature-held food with these standards in mind. It is absolutely critical for a food service business to be able to demonstrate excellence in food temperature controls.
Commercial food warmers also help with product visibility. As mentioned, putting food warmers on display behind Plexiglass can be an appropriate way to show off the results of your culinary skills to visitors.

Food Warmer Controls: Heating
This is an important one because there are two main types of controls for heating commercial food warmers. Either of these will determine how you keep your food at the best temperature, to keep it safely heated, but prevent it from drying out or scorching.

The first type of food warmer is called a thermostatic system. Here you have a thermostat that you control to set it at a certain temperature. After that, the system automatically corrects to keep food at that temperature, regardless of (or according to) changes to the local environment or room temperature.

The other method is called infinite heating, where you have something called a rheostat that has low, middle, and high settings. You might see a dial with numbers from 1 to 10.

With the rheostat, you manually control how hot the food is, and you monitor the temperature as necessary. Pairing a rheostat with a digital thermometer can help you to maintain an eye on how hot the food actually is at any given time.

With all of this in mind, you should be on the way to getting Custom Display Coolers and related gear that will help you to succeed in achieving your restaurant goals.