Category Archives: Uncategorised

4 Elements of a Successful Bakery Store

For more information on Promolux LED lighting for bakeries or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

Guaranteeing increased food safety by using Promolux LED lighting in the bakery aisles and food display cases is an element of a successful bakery business. Use of LEDs assures the customers of food safety as the lights do not produce harmful ultraviolet rays and elements. Apart from the proper lighting system, there are other elements that bring about increased sale of baked products, thereby boosting your business. Use of commercial promotional strategies through adverts in different media platforms is one of the viable ways of letting the public know about the existence of your bakery store. However, there are other simple elements you can use inside the store to increase foot customer traffic in your store.

High quality food display cases

Choice of the proper bakery display cases for your baked goods is an element that brings about success in every bakery business. When running a bakery, you need to display the products in such a way that they attract customers from afar. The display cases play an important role of revealing the best of your baked products and keeping them safe and fresh. It is important to have both dry and refrigerated bakery display cases. In the dry display cases, craftily display baked products such as <https://www.promolux.com/applications/food-retail-displays/bakery/donuts-muffins-pastries-in-grocery-store-bakery-cabinets/” target=”_blank”>bread, donuts, muffins, and some types of cookies that have a long shelf life.

On the other hand, display cakes flavored with fresh fruits and dairy products in the refrigerated cases. To enhance the shelf life of perishable baked products, light up the refrigerated cases with specialty LED display case lighting. These lights make the colors and patterns of the displayed products appear vivid and fresh while keeping the temperature in the case low for prolonged product freshness.

Tactful display methods

Tactful display of the products in the display cases within the bakery store helps in capturing the attention of potential customers. Baked product display should be done to appeal to the psychological and visual senses of the buyer. A psychological sense of abundance is likely to influence a customer to impulse buy more baked products than initially intended. A sense of abundance is created by ensuring that the display cases are constantly filled with baked goods.

In addition, placing some small baskets full of delicious cookies near the cashier counter and along the paths within the bakery store sends a message of abundance to potential customers. Also, arranging products by their specific type, color and size makes the display appealing prompting customers to buy more. Make the displayed products appear with mouth watering freshness by using Promolux LED showcase lighting in the bakery display cases.

Proper lighting fixtures

Choice of proper light fixtures and fixing them in strategic places is an element that promotes sales in the bakery store. The freshness, appearance and shelf life of the products depends partially on the lighting system used in the store. Use of inferior fluorescent lighting may result to change in color of the displayed items while making them dry and hard. Other products baked using perishable ingredients are affected by heat produced by fluorescent light fixtures making them to become stale prematurely. Therefore, mount LED light fixtures in the display cases and the aisles for successful display and prolonged shelf life of the baked products.

Why You Need to Invest in High Quality Bakery Display Cases

For more information on Promolux bakery display case lighting or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

Experienced bakers will tell you that your baked goods should be able to sell themselves on the merit of their texture, taste and overall quality. However, it is important to remember that a bakery business will not run successfully unless you invest your time and resources in upgrading the presentation of your food. If your baked goods do not appear visually appealing, then most people will not be interested in making the purchase. This is why good quality bakery display cases are essential to the prosperity of any bakery business.

What kind of bakery display cases should you choose?

There are plenty of options to choose from when it comes to installing a food display case in your bakery outlet. The most common choice is the acrylic food display case. The reason why acrylic is preferred over other materials is because of how effective it is in retaining the freshness of food and preventing it from going bad. Acrylic is also known to shield baked goods from foreign contaminants.

When baked goods are exposed to foreign contaminants, they can get spoiled at a very rapid rate. You cannot afford to create any doubt in the customer’s mind about the freshness of your food. If there are repeated concerns about food hygiene in your bakery store, then customers will simply stop buying from you and make the switch to other bakery outlets that you are competing with. This is how bakery businesses struggle to survive, let alone thrive in the industry.

Features of a bakery display case

If you have a small bakery shop with limited space, then you might be reluctant to buy a food display case. It is commonly believed that bakery display cases eat up a lot of space and leave very little room for the customers and employees to roam around freely inside the bakery. However, when you take into account the importance of a bakery display case in the enhanced preservation and improved presentation of your food, you cannot rule out the idea of purchasing one for your bakery store.

This is where the varying features of bakery display cases can come in handy. Food display cases are available in a number of different sizes. If you are crammed for space inside your shop, then you can select one of the smaller bakery display cases available on the market. In certain bakery display cases, the internal trays are height adjustable. This will give you plenty of room to fit in baked goods of any size. You might also consider getting a food display case that has both front and rear doors. This opens the option of self service for your customers.

Bakery display case lighting

You need to be very selective about the bakery display case lighting. The display light plays an important role in the presentation of the food as well as its preservation. Using ordinary lamps to provide lighting for food can spell disaster. These lights are known to cause photodegradation, which is a process that results in the spoilage of baked goods and other food items. Instead of buying inexpensive ordinary lights, invest in food safe lighting by Promolux. They help you extend the shelf life of your products as well as make them more visually appealing.

Creative Christmas Cookie Display Ideas for Bakeries

For more information on Promolux LED lighting or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

The Christmas season is a festive period that puts the customers in the spending mood. The use of promotional tactics to trigger impulse buying in customers can lead to increased sales and high profits during Christmas. Also, in this festive season, delicious cookies form part of a merry list, especially for kids. There are different ways of making cookies displays that will make customers rush to the display case and spend time admiring different types of cookies, some having a variety of captivating decorations. Here are some ideas for you.

Christmas cookie tree display

Creativity plays a major role in Christmas cookie displays in bakeries. Creating a Christmas cookies tree is a unique window display idea that makes the customers curious. In this case, select a standard structure of a Christmas tree. For hygiene purposes, it is advisable to get the one made of wooden or stainless steel rods. Study the structure of the tree and draw a specific display plan before baking the cookies. The display plan will guide you in baking cookies with shapes and colors that will help develop the tree fully. Once the baked cookies are ready, place them at strategic positions on the tree in a style that mimics a real tree. For example, you can bake some cookies with holes through which you will pass clean display strings to hang more cookies. Also, decorate some leaf-shaped cookies with green colors to mimic tree leaves, other round cookies yellow, orange and red to mimic the fruits. In order to bring out the different elements of the Christmas tree created by the cookies, illuminate the tree with Promolux specialty LED display case lighting.

Cookie bouquet

Cookie bouquets make come for great gifts for shoppers during Christmas. Baked products to be included in the bouquet should have a theme that suits the festive season. For this display to be successful, you can incorporate some ideas of themed display. To start with, identify ideal containers with the desired size and shape. The containers to be used to develop the bouquet should be transparent to reveal the displayed cookies adequately. Once the containers are ready, bake different sizes and shapes of cookies and decorate some with attractive colors. For example, bake some stars, crescents or come up with a combination of shapes that make a complete nativity scene. Place the cookies in the selected containers to be bought as gift packs. Display the containers full of cookies in display cases that are well lit with Promolux LED bakery lighting for enhanced appearance.

Winter scenes

Winter scenes are best for displaying deliciously decorated cookies in the bakery. The Christmas season is characterized by winter scenes with plenty of snow. In this case, draw a design of a winter scene that you wish to create using cookies. For instance, you can design a starry night of nativity or any other winter scene with the white icing to mimic falling snow that completes the intended scene. Create the ground or foundation using blocks of flat cookies, then design the snowman using round cookies with white icing and other required images. Crown the winter scene with decorations and fillings using different products such as pieces of fresh fruits, cheese and a mixture of eggs and icing. Cover the whole scene with plenty of white icing dropped at random. Use Promolux LED food safe lighting to keep the displayed winter scene fresh by extending the shelf life of the cookies.

3 Reasons to Use Specialty LED Food Display Lighting in Your Bakery

For more information on Promolux LED lighting or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

The quality of lighting in your bakery will determine the success or failure of the business venture for baked items. You may be an expert in baking, with all the required equipment to run your business but if you use of inferior lighting in your display cases, you may spoil all your efforts. Buyers are attracted by fresh looking, well decorated cakes, cookies and bread. To achieve this, you need to have baking and decoration skills to come up with creative unique design. Sound cake display case management is important in order to grab customers’ attention while preventing wastage resulting from poor display practices.

Retains integrity of baked products

Different types of cakes are defined by the ingredients used that give each cake a specific flavor. In this case, one may decide to make a cake with vanilla or chocolate flavor. In order to make the cakes delicious, tasty fillings such as butter creams and pieces of fruits are added into the cake. To crown it all, a cake without icing and decorations is not considered complete. Once the cakes are complete, they should be arranged in the right food display cases depending on type, size and flavor. However, using lighting with high wavelength destroys the appearance, nature and flavor of the ingredients used for filling, which makes the cake appear less fresh. Promolux LED bakery display case lighting has low wavelength that preserves the ingredients in the case. Therefore, install LEDS in the display cases to prevent the cake fillings from hardening, icing and decorations from fading, and to sustain the cake’s natural flavor.

Eye catching displays

Make cookies, cakes and bread irresistible by using unique eye catching display methods. Ensure that for the cakes and cookies prepared with highly perishable ingredients are displayed in a refrigerated cake display case. To increase sales, use the shelves provided for displaying cakes, preferably arranging the small sized cakes on the uppermost shelves with the large decorated cakes occupying the lowest shelves. This makes all the cakes visible to customers from a distance. Adequate light in the display case makes the cakes appear fresh and bright. In order to have an eye catching product display that increases sales in your bakery, replace the heat emitting full spectrum fluorescent lighting with Promolux food display case LEDs, especially for the refrigerated cake display cases. LEDs keep the temperature in the display case low for prolonged product freshness while making the display appear splendid.

Extended shelf life

Most delicious baked products available in the bakery are prepared using dairy products such as butter, cream, milk and eggs. These products have limited shelf life, reduced further by exposure to heat. Display cases play an important role in making the products presentable to potential customers and acts as their safe storage. The presence of heat in the display case may result in premature spoiling of the products as the ingredients become stale. Use Promolux bakery display case lighting to keep displayed cakes, cookies and bread prepared using dairy products fresh for an extended period of time with their natural tasty flavor.

Factors to Consider when Displaying your Baked Goods

For more information on Promolux lighting or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

Eye catching retail displays of baked products leads to increased sales as well as a powerful marketing strategy that influences customers to purchase more. How you choose to display the products in your bakery will depend on the type, size, color and the ingredients used in developing them. These factors help in choosing the appropriate retail display case to be used and creative artistic display styles to make the products appear fresh and attractive.

Decorations

Most baked products displayed in bakeries are decorated to enhance their appearance. Different types of cakes are decorated with icings that match themes such as birthdays, weddings or anniversary celebrations. Also, cookies are decorated to appear attractive especially to the kids during Halloween. When planning for products display, the ingredients used for decoration should be considered in order to retain their fresh appearance. It is advisable to display decorated cakes and cookies in a glass display case to prevent exposure to air that may lead to drying up and hardening of the decorations. In addition, decorated baked products should be displayed in a case lit with a specialty LED lighting system. Displaying decorated products under LED lighting eliminates chances of decorations fading and appearing less fresh.

Ingredients

The ingredients used to make baked products determine the mode of their display in the bakery. Products made with flour and baking soda, yeast or baking powder, have a longer shelf life. These products can be displayed on wooden shelves, propped shelves, baskets and other dry display cases. Products like common bread, doughnuts and cookies stay fresh for a prolonged period at room temperature.

On the other hand, baked products that were made using perishable ingredients such as cheese, eggs, fresh fruit filling, milk and other dairy products should be kept in refrigerated display cases. The temperature in the case should be regulated to prevent premature decay of the products. However, the use of fluorescent lighting in the display cases will result in higher temperatures that can make the displayed products stale. In order to extend shelf life of the baked products, it is advisable to replace the heat producing fluorescent lights with Promolux LED lighting for bakery display cases since they do not warm up to provide light.

Type, color and size

The type, size and color of the baked products determine the arrangement to be used in the display cases. Mixing different types of baked products should be avoided as it may bring about confusion while making some products invisible. Though different types of products may be displayed in the same dry or refrigerated display case, each category should occupy a shelf. The small sized products such as doughnuts, roll bread, cupcakes and other cookies should occupy the upper shelves in the display cases. The secret of coming up with eye catching product display is to use Promolux lighting for bakery display cases. In this case, baked products with the same colors should be arranged on the same side while creating the transition with products having a different color. Promolux lamps bring out the true colors making the products appear brighter and fresh.

3 Ways to Avoid Photodegradation of Baked Goods

For more information on Promolux food safe lighting or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

The photodegradation of food is a huge problem that largely affects people working in the retail food industry. One of the essential tools required in making your retail food business marketable is a set of food display cases. These display cases have become synonymous with food display; although there was a time when the presentation of food, in a bakery outlet for example, did not require the use of such elaborate cases.

There are numerous advantages to having a food display case in your bakery, which is why almost everyone has one in their outlet. However, the one big disadvantage that you should be concerned about is that inferior display case lighting leads to a number of problems in terms of food safety and shelf life. This is where the widespread issue of photodegradation of food creeps into the picture. When food contained within display cases is exposed to ordinary lights that make up the food display case lighting, photodegradation can take place within the constituents of the food. As a result of this, your food turns bad prematurely and the safety of the consumers purchasing the food is potentially compromised.

There are measures that you can take to prevent the photodegradation of the products in your bakery. Here are three tips to help you out:

1) Reduce light exposure of sensitive foods

Certain foods are more sensitive to light, and thereby more prone to photodegradation, than others. This makes it a necessity for you to identify the light sensitive foods that you are selling to the consumers and try to limit their exposure to food display lighting. You can do this by either changing the position of the food items inside the display case or by simply taking the food out of the case.

2) Remove the bright lights

Have you gone overboard with the commercial lighting in your bakery? Are there are too many bright LEDs and fluorescents in your bakery that are quite unnecessary? Then it is high time that you start taking the bright lights out and replacing them with lights of lower intensity. Remember, the more intense the light is, the more severe will be the effects of photodegradation on the food. Do not compromise the safety and shelf life of your food in a bid to attract a few extra customers who may or may not purchase your goods.

3) Food safe lighting

Food safe lighting is a set of specialized merchandising lamps that have very low photochemical activity. This means that such lighting will hardly have any adverse effects on the quality or the longevity of your food. Promolux lamps are an example of food safe lighting, which help retain the freshness of your perishable goods and minimize the risk of photodegradation.

Inferior Lighting Can Damage Your Baked Perishables

For more information on Promolux food safe lighting or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

The fact that inferior display case lighting can affect food, lead to premature discoloration, and lower the shelf life of baked goods is something that is known to some people are who involved in the retail industry. Despite that, few retailers have taken appropriate measures to ensure that food display lighting does not hamper the quality of their food and dent the reputation of their business.

The problem with inferior food display lighting

The idea that lighting can have adverse effects on the safety of perishable goods such as baked items is not widespread knowledge as of yet. This is the reason why retailers do not take food display lighting very seriously. Many of them simply ignore the problem due to the lack of adequate information on the subject.

For example, the owner of any bakery outlet is supposed to be very selective about the display lighting that gets fitted into the bakery display case. However, we rarely see owners investing their money on high quality food safe lighting.

Most of them settle for ordinary lights and risk facing consequences such as photodegradation of food, accelerated growth of pathogens and absorption of excessive heat, which leads to changes in the chemical composition of the baked goods.

Drawing the shopper’s attention in the wrong way

In the retail food industry, drawing the customer’s attention is an integral part of keeping your business alive in an intensely competitive atmosphere. If the customers who walk into a bakery shop are not satisfied with the appearance of the foods placed in the display case, then chances are that they will walk away without taking their wallets out. To avoid this rejection, entrepreneurs go to great lengths to create wonderful displays of baked goods that are placed under spot and accent lights with extra intensity.

The more intense the light is, the higher the chances are of photo degradation of food taking place. In other words, bright lights lead to big problems for retail food outlets. These lights are literally causing the food to go bad. The business owners are succeeding in drawing the customers into the shop. However, in doing so, they are compromising the safety of their food, which should be their primary concern.

Plenty of research but no implementation

The connection between lighting and photodegradation of food or food toxicity is something that has piqued the interest of research facilities in numerous universities across the world. However, the information that is being discovered inside the research labs is yet to trickle down to the grassroots level retailers who are completely unaware of the fact that their flashy display lights are ruining the quality of their food.

According to one report, most in-store lighting is inferior from a food safety and shelf life perspective. This means that most bakery outlets are not only selling unsafe foods, but they are also reducing their profits by unknowingly reducing the shelf life of their baked goods.

The solution: food safe lighting

If you are concerned about preserving the quality of your baked goods, we recommend food safe lighting such as that developed by Promolux. This specialty lighting designed specifically with food retailers in mind will extend the shelf life of your baked products, while making them look more attractive to consumers.

How to Keep a Bakery Display Case Sparkling Clean

For more information on Promolux LED lighting or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

Promolux lighting for fresh bakery merchandising provides adequate light that highlights baked products displayed in them. However, bakery products can only sell if they are produced and displayed in a clean environment. Maintaining the cleanliness of the display cases is essential as customers are likely to have faith in your business hence making more purchases. Remember that a well lit display case, especially those made with acrylic and glass material, will reveal the items displayed plus any dust, untidy crumbs and rust present. Therefore, following simple display case cleanliness steps is essential in keeping off dust, rust and crumbs. Keep the display cases in your bakery sparkling clean, using the tips below.

Spray dust before displaying products

In order to keep the display cases dust free, routine spraying of the case with a dust repelling glass cleaner is highly recommended. Even if you had cleaned the display cases on the previous evening, you need to remove any existing dust before placing new products in the morning. In this case, get the dust repelling glass cleaner and spray the inner part of the case. After spraying, get a lint free towel and carefully wipe the interior and exterior parts of the display case. Once sure that no dust particles are present, arrange the baked items on the shelves using the color coding method to make the display attractive. Turn on your Promolux LED lighting for eye catching display appearance.

Daily thorough cleaning

Display cases are prone to dust, crumbs and oils from the baked products. At the end of the day, display cases are likely to have a combination of moisture, crumbs, grease and dust that makes it dirty and unfit for product display. To avoid this accumulation, it is advisable to clean the display cases every day. At the end of the day, remove all the baked products displayed in the cases for a thorough cleaning exercise. Turn off the lighting system used in the display and wipe out all the small crumbs.

At this stage avoid using harsh cleaning chemicals as they might ruin the material while making the case unfit for food display. Once the crumbs and other particles are out, wipe the sides of the case with wet clean lint free microfiber cloth. Using a dry lint free cloth, wipe the entire display case dry. Leave the case open to prevent moisture formation and promote dryness for product display the following day. For refrigerated cases, put on the cooling system soon after cleaning and arrange the products for preservation overnight. Turn on the LED food display lighting, which you can leave on as it does not produce heat and its energy consumption is low.

Regular display case wiping

Display cases are touched regularly as people admire the baked products while choosing the ones they want to buy. Constant touching of the glass case to point at the desired product and when removing them leaves greasy fingerprint marks. If these marks are unchecked, they make the display case appear increasingly dirty and unclear. To avoid this, it is advisable to assign a staff member to regularly wipe the case with a clean-dry microfiber cloth. Wiping should be done after every three hours or depending on the amount of customers that go through the bakery store. By using Promolux LED supermarket showcase lighting, you can easily highlight existing marks for prompt cleaning.

The Importance of Food Safety in Bakeries

For more information on Promolux lighting or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

Running a bakery is not child’s play. There are a lot of factors that need to be taken into consideration in order to make a bakery store thrive in the intensely competitive food industry. If you fail to get off to a flying start, your bakery business may never run as smoothly as you may have imagined it. One of the main areas where bakery business owners falter is food safety.

Ensuring food safety in bakery outlets has its own set of special requirements and features. Consumers who purchase baked goods are very meticulous about the nutritional value and the healthiness of such items. If you fail to meet certain basic standards of food safety and hygiene, then your bakery business will be in serious danger. If you persist in not paying attention to food safety equipment and measures, then your bakery store will soon go out of business.

In order to prevent such a disaster, you need to learn about important food safety considerations for all bakeries and baked goods sections. Here are some key areas that you should focus on.

Controlling pests

Pest control may sound like a silly matter, but it can actually be a problem of epic proportions. How embarrassing would it be for your customer to find the remains of a cockroach in a cupcake that they have purchased from your shop? Or how big of a blow would it be for your bakery’s reputation if a customer spots a creepy crawler inside your bakery display case? Incidents like these are not only humiliating, but they can pose a major threat to the survival of your business. Therefore, you need to make sure that you have invested sufficient resources in a proper pest control management system.

Employee hygiene

The employees, especially those who are directly involved in the manufacturing, processing and handling of baked goods, should follow a strict protocol that guidelines basic hygiene and cleanliness requirements. Employees should wear protective clothes and have their heads and hands covered when in direct contact with the food. They should be equipped in protective clothing even when they are touching the display cases. Employees should also be discouraged from wearing accessories such as ornaments or rings that pose a risk of food contamination.

Food safe lighting

Using ordinary lights for bakery display cases can have a number of detrimental effects on the quality of your baked goods. Exposure to intense lights leads to discoloration, photo degradation and reduction in the shelf life of food. All of these conditions can lead your business incurring financial losses due your negligence towards the harmful effects of inferior bakery display case lighting. Under such circumstances, your best option is to ensure that you use food safe lighting.

You can use Promolux lamps for this purpose since these emit minimal levels of the damaging visible spectrum and ultraviolet radiation. In fact, Promolux lamps can increase the shelf life of your baked goods by 50%.

The Photodegradation of Baked Goods Can Hurt Your Business

For more information on Promolux lighting or to request a quote, click on the links to the right.

Running a bakery outlet is one of the most difficult challenges in the field of entrepreneurship. Regardless of where the outlet is located, you can always expect plenty of competitors trying to overthrow you for a greater share of the market. This makes it a necessity for bakery shop owners to ensure that their business operations are perfectly streamlined. However, there are always obstacles which hinder your progress. One stumbling block to running a bakery outlet successfully is the photodegradation of baked goods.

Photodegradation is a serious problem

Photodegradation sounds like an overly complicated term that food safety regulators would use to fine bakery shop owners. In all fairness, there is nothing complicated or confusing about photodegradation. It is the simple, yet highly undesirable process by which light spoils your food. If you have never heard of photodegradation before, then the concept of light ruining your lovely bakery selection should be an absolute shocker. You must be asking yourself, “How could something that you use to accentuate the visual appeal of your baked goods end up being so harmful?” As strange as it may sound, photodegradation of baked goods is a serious problem and it affects hundreds and thousands of businesses every single year.

How photodegradation occurs

Sunlight, fluorescent lighting and incandescent lighting can all lead to photodegradation. As far as the bakery business is concerned, it is the food display case lighting which causes the harm. The light inside the bakery display cases is absorbed by the baked goods, which triggers a chemical reaction in the food. The chemical reaction takes place in specific components of the food. As a result of this, the baked goods can develop off flavors. The color of the food items can change as well. The light usually permeates the outer layer of the solid baked foods, leading to a distasteful discoloration on the surface.

Photodegradation can put you out of business

The slightest bit of changes in color and flavor in your baked goods can spell disaster for your business. Customers will not be willing to pay for baked goods that do not look, taste or smell fresh and delicious. Sales will drop and your business will be losing out to competition.

Ordinary lights cause photodegradation

If you find yourself in such a distressful situation, you need to realize that the bakery case lighting is not your enemy. Rather, it is the use of regular lighting in the bakery case which puts you in this predicament. Regular lighting is not ideal for the display of baked goods as they lead to severe photodegradation of baked goods. In other words, these lights are directly responsible for spoiling your precious food.

The need for specialty merchandising lamps

To solve this problem, you need to resort to the use of food safe lighting for bakeries. Much like food grade color, specialty merchandising lamps will not compromise the freshness, the quality or the appearance of your baked goods. If you want to enhance the shelf life of your baked goods and get your business back on track, then installing lamps like Promolux food safe lighting is your safest bet.