Manual Food Prep vs Food Processor: What’s the Smart Buy?

6 Decision-Critical Factors That Can Put the Dilemma to Bed

Given the?foodservice customer’s ongoing demand for fresh—and the related, if more lofty, sustainability —almost every operator is destined to face the prospect of expanding and automating their food-prep operations.

For those who’ve already begun doing so, other?demand trends, like the growth of delivery and the food quality challenges that come with it , can force them to reevaluate what they have in place.

Either way, at some point, kitchens arrive at a crossroads when they must choose between mechanized manual food prep or an electric-powered food processor.

Here are the 6 baseline Q&As that should make the decision easier.

1. What’s Your Food Prep Equipment Budget?

This is number one in the hierarchy because budgets can be set in stone—in which case, under the general principle that food processors are more expensive than manual tools, the decision might be made for you.

But, if you have some flexibility, the decision becomes more about justifying your spend against what you need to achieve in the kitchen.

Manual choppers typically range from $70 for the least expensive and most basic models—usually Asian imports—to around $300 for an American-made unit.

These machines are typically designed for one particular food item, even if they can effectively handle a few others, and are set up to perform one specific cut style and size.

For more money, you can often add additional blades and push blocks to do additional sizes and styles. For example, if you’re looking to do a ?” and 3/8” dice, as well as ?” slice, you could expect to spend at least $650.

Beyond that, if your budget can expand to four figures, it might be time to look at a processor—which dovetails into the next factor.

2. How Much Food Prep Versatility Do You Need?

Higher-end manual food-prep equipment can have some versatility beyond one food, one cut.

You might be able to chop and, in a two-step process, dice. Many slicers can do a multitude of soft produce, for example. Maybe with a blade changeout, you can switch from, say, a chop to a wedge.

Within those parameters, again, it’s a balance of cost to functionality.

But, if your menu is versatile—maybe you offer an array of signature salads or sandwiches or you feature a wide range of pizza toppings, for example—you’re probably wise to spend more and invest in a food processor that can chop, slice, dice?and?shred, grate, julienne and crinkle cut.

Not only can you achieve upwards of 20 or more of these cuts—in different size variations—with one unit and an ala carte of blade options. But you can likely achieve smaller sizes that manual tools cannot and, possibly, even cut foods that simply won’t go through a manual device without turning into a useless mess. (Pusher blocks aren’t kind to bananas.)

Furthermore, if you do any kind of blending for smoothies or you make margin on house-made dressings or sauces, going full-on food processor is a no brainer.

And one final note related to versatility. Multiple cuts require multiple manual food prep tools versus a processor that can do it all in one footprint. So, even in the event you’re only doing a handful of different foods and cut variations, if your counter or storage space is limited, a processor might still be the way to go.

3. Food Prep Volume? The Real Question Is Labor.

As in, how much do you need to save?

Manual food prep equipment can produce just as much volume as a processor.

(The real divide exists between the aforementioned?imports, which tend not to be a wise investment against American-made units in a high-volume application .)

The issue here really comes down to speed or your staff bandwidth.

Service speed will continue to be in high demand going forward . And shallow labor pools have been plaguing operators for years.

Bottom line, if labor efficiency is hypercritical, your food processor can generally achieve the volume you need in half the time of a manual device.

4. Does You Food Prep Need to Travel?

Manual food prep can go anywhere.

So, if you operate a food truck without a generator, you’re running a catering service that can deploy your kitchen to remote places, or you have some other operation that can cast uncertainty on your electrical access, a processor might leave you stranded.

Time to think manual.

If you overlay your food truck with the last point under versatility about limited kitchen space, you might also need to reevaluate your menu and simplify.

5. How Imperative Is Your Food Prep Safety?

Like a limited budget that can make a food processor cost-prohibitive, another factor that can render all of these considerations moot and make your decision for you is safety.

More specifically, if you have kitchen staff under age 18, your only option will likely be manual food prep, as the law in most states forbids commercial kitchens from putting power equipment in the hands of minors.

Of course, those laws reflect the general consensus that manual food prep equipment tends to have fewer safety risks. Nonetheless, especially given the inexperience so common in such a high-turnover industry, safety demands taking a closer look at your equipment options, regardless of which way you’re leaning.

Both manual food prep and electric food processors have inherent safety risks and the features designed to alleviate them differentiate greatly from one brand to another.

6. How Averse Are You to Food Prep Equipment Maintenance?

No food prep equipment is completely maintenance free. And, like safety features, the durability rating of different machines can vary greatly.

But, as a general rule, if minimizing maintenance concerns is a top priority, manual food prep equipment is more reliable simply because they involve simpler designs, with fewer moving parts and no motors that can wear down or belts that can burn up.

By contrast, electrical equipment, even if well designed and built, is more susceptible to service issues—a reality that’s true in virtually any manual-to-electric comparison, from food equipment to cars.

Quite frankly, unless an employee breaks a manual machine (which takes a rather high level of brutality), operability comes down to blade replacement and little else.