Hot food holding equipment tends to have two general applications: back of the house and merchandising holding. In either application, the role of hot food holding equipment is to store menu items at the food safe temperature of 140 degrees F, maintaining the items’ quality, until they are ready to be served to the customer.

Hot food holding equipment can support a variety of foodservice operations. Some key market segments for this product include catering, school foodservice, supermarkets, prisons and healthcare. Basically, any foodservice operator that needs to keep warm a specific menu item for a period of time can use a piece of hot food holding equipment.

If treated well, it is not uncommon for a piece of hot food holding equipment to last for a very long time. More often than not, foodservice operators tend to replace their hot food holding equipment based on aesthetics rather than the item’s wearing out. Also, some operators may identify the need to add a few more pieces of hot food holding equipment to help smooth production and provide better customer service.

Here are some considerations foodservice operators and their supply chain partners should weigh when specifying hot food holding equipment.

Unlike other pieces of foodservice equipment, which can be more involved, maintaining a piece of hot food holding equipment is rather straightforward.

The good news is that hot food holding equipment carries an Energy Star rating. The bad news is that this category is up for review by Energy Star and the products will need to go through a more stringent series of testing and verification steps in order to earn this much sought after rating. Still, specifying an energy-efficient piece of hot food holding equipment can have its benefits.