pre-shredded cheese or block cheese?

[ScottOhio]

I purchased my store in April and the previous owner was running a 55% plus food cost. I have found many ways to lower it down to 32% but I don’t want to raise my prices to high or drop the quality to much. I have tossed the idea around of shredding my own cheese but I am unsure of the advantages and disadvantages. Could you guys also recommend a good quality cheese shredder?

The blades used in the Palazzolo machine are a top grade stainless steel made in Germany. This is same exact diameter blades used in the Hobart Pelican attachment, however there are holes punched, dimpled, and sharpened all of the way to the center of the blade (unique to the Palazzolo machine). Also, these blades can be sharpen by hand many times with a chain saw file if needed. The questions between the Pelican attachment vs. the Palazzolo machine is speed and labor savings. The Palazzolo machine accepts a 6 lb. of cheese and shreds 25 lbs. per minute. The wear and tear on the Hobart machine while using the Pelican attachment can result in costly repairs. Clearly the Palazzolo wins. The ROI on the purchase of the Palazzolo is short due to the labor savings using other equipment and/or the cost of buying pre-shredded.

 

[Grokster]

Does your guys shred clump and stick together? Do you dust it with anything like cellulose? If so what is the cost per lbs on dusting?

 

[Crusher]

We had been buying preshredded cheese for the 1st 8 years of business. Last year I switched to using a shredder attachment on my hobart and started saving around .25 a pound. It was a little hard getting used to the extra prep, but not too bad. Around the same time I started opening for lunch everyday and I would personally shred all the cheese for the night during our down time. Everything was working fine until my motorcycle accident 6 weeks ago. I went 4 weeks without even stepping foot in my shop. I am very hands on so it was a lot of stuff for my staff to take on while I was out, so we switched back to pre-shredded unitl I am healed up and back to work.