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This week, many American restaurants have been forced to shut down or move to carry-out only in the hopes of slowing the spread of COVID-19. The economic impact that restaurants and the foodservice industries could sustain are estimated to reach $225 billion in losses with 5-7 million jobs lost*. (*Source National Restaurant Association)

The restaurant and foodservice industries have served all of us as a meeting place for friends and family after a stress filled week. They have provided a place to recharge and regroup. A place to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and countless other special occasions. Restaurant owners and staff have provided many of us with the lasting memories of those events uninterrupted, until now.

What can we do now to help support our local restaurants?

 Order Carry-Out Tonight

Whether it’s pick-up or delivery, support your favorite local restaurants by placing a carryout order. This will help to keep kitchen and support staff working while you extend your family’s home food supplies. Many delivery services are now offering curbside service or free delivery. Give them a try! Just be sure to tip your delivery person well, as many depend on tips as regular income.

Buy Restaurant Gift Cards Online

Buying restaurant gift cards now will help your local eatery’s pay bills, staff and suppliers during this downturn. Some have said to consider this a “micro loan” that will help owners with expenses now in return for meals served at a later date.

Buy Restaurant Merchandise Online

If your local restaurants sell merchandise online, now is the perfect time to order that t-shirt, sweatshirt, beanie or baseball cap you’ve wanted. Those proceeds will help to cover fixed operating costs that don’t go away when the doors are temporarily closed for business.

Contribute to a Relief Fund or a Virtual Tip Jar

Many restaurants are asking for donations to help pay staff and keep the supplies coming.  Some donations and go fund me accounts are going directly to employees in need. Give what you can. A small contribution can make a big difference for someone in great need.

Now, more than ever we need to help make sure that our favorite restaurants and their staff make it through the unprecedented challenge that COVID-19 has created for all of us.

At Plascon, we are doing everything we can to support our food production, processing, and packaging industry customers.  Our films, bags, and liners are deemed “essential” products critical to continued infrastructure viability. We are still open for business and ready to support our customers in any way we can.  Contact us and we will work with you to supply the packaging needs to keep your business operational as well. Practice six feet social distancing. Check on your friends and neighbors (keeping 6′ apart, of course!). And remember, we are all in this together. 

Fresh brewed iced tea can be found all over the United States at restaurants, country clubs, convenience stores and really anywhere where food and drink is served. It’s actually the 2^nd most popular beverage in the United States behind water. People like the taste of iced tea, the health benefits, as well as the cultural reasons.

Most people don’t realize that mold, bacteria and fungus begin to grow on the walls of the urns and spigots within about 2 hours after the initial fresh brew of the day. But do you know just how much goes into cleaning those urns and spigots every night? It’s quite a process.

How to Properly Clean an Iced Tea Urn & Spigot

To clean the spigots:

• Once a day, remove the spigots.
• Take each one apart (should be in three pieces) and transfer all three parts to a 3 compartment sink.
• Fill one sink with warm soapy water,  a second compartment with cold water for rinsing and the third with cleaning solution for soaking.
• Use a wire brush to thoroughly clean the inside of the spigot.
• Allow all of the parts to soak in sanitizing solution for a MINIMUM of 10 minutes.
• Remove all the parts and allow them to air dry.

To clean the urn:

• Fill the urn with water and cleaning solution.
• Draw about 2 ounces of that solution through the spigot in order to clean the inside of that cavity where the tea passes through to get to the spigot.
• Allow the solution to sit in the urn overnight.
• The next morning, using a wire brush, scrub every nook and cranny of the urn for roughly 10-15 minutes.

According to Bunn, who manufacturers a large amount of the urns that are in use in the United States today, these are the steps you should be doing every day to ensure your urns and spigots are clean and producing a safe beverage to drink. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Now imagine if your store or restaurant has 3 or 4 urns. You have to repeat that process for each urn, every single night.

Use Saftea^® Liner to Ensure Maximum Food Safety and Hygiene

There is however, an alternative to using the traditional cleaning methods most stores and restaurants have been doing for years. Yes, cleaning the urns of course works, but who wants to spend 20 minutes per urn cleaning them? Especially when there are products that make it so you don’t ever have to clean them again!

That brings us to our Saftea^® Liners. The Saftea^® Liner is a proven alternative to cleaning urns. By placing just one liner into each urn every day, not only do you eliminate the need to clean and scrub urns and spigots every day, you also ensure you’re not serving mold and bacteria to your customers! The liners actually improve the flavor of the tea, protect the tea from foreign contamination, but they are also cost effective allowing your crew to do their clean up responsibilities faster, thus sending the entire team home earlier for the day, which in turn saves your restaurant or store money on labor.

We are always happy to provide free samples for anyone who would like to try them out at their store or restaurant!  Request your free samples here.

Ready to buy now?  Visit our web store and place your order!  With online ordering, you can order 24 hours a day, so if you are running low and need to place an order at midnight, we’ve got you covered!

Our expert sales team is available to answer any questions you may have.  Contact us today! 

Sous Vide (su-ved) is a French term for “under vacuum”.  The Sous Vide cooking technique involves cooking food under vacuum in airtight bags submerged in a temperature-controlled cook tank or water bath.  The process of slow cooking meats and vegetables in a water bath at controlled temperatures ensures not only a precise level of doneness, (not over- or under-cooked), but it also allows the retention of juices and aroma making the end result more flavorful and enjoyable.  

Benefits of Sous Vide

Placing the food in a water bath, with the temperature set at the desired final cooking temperature of the food, prevents overcooking, because the food cannot get hotter than the bath it is in, providing consistent results every time, and across multiple locations if applicable.

• The foods are cooked evenly and to perfection every time.
• Important Nutrients and Vitamins are “locked in”, keeping food moist and tender.
• The Sous Vide method removes the risk of overcooking and drying out.

The Plascon Bag Advantage

Plascon manufactures tubular bags are using a 7- layer co-extruded film where all the layers are blown at the same time, creating a strong multi-layer construction. Our sous vide bags are made from this tubular film and sealed with one sole bottom seal, making it a stronger, and more durable packaging solution. 

Plascon Films and Bags are also:

• Produced under HACCP controlled conditions.
• Produced with filtered air, creating an aseptic environment on the inside of the film.
• FDA Compliant 
• BPA-Free
• BRC Certified.

Bag Features

During the manufacturing process, oxygen and moisture barriers are applied, which provides increased protection of flavors. Our durable sous vide bags can withstand extreme temperatures ranging from -20º F to 212º F.  Plascon sous vide bags are manufactured at commercial grade, and designed to be used with most vacuum chamber packaging machines. With our 7-layer process and single bottom seal, Plascon sous vide bags are designed to withstand the rigors of vacuuming, handling and distribution.

Learn more about the Sous Vide method of cooking and how you can begin using it in your restaurant and food service business.  Contact us today!

There are two major trends happening in America right now, and they might be effecting your business without you even realizing it. The good news is, Plascon can help you in your endeavor to tackle them both.

It’s no secret that the past couple of decades have seen a major uptick in the American consumer being more contentious how their food and beverages are prepared, stored, and served. There’s a growing concern across the nation about what we are putting into our bodies, intentionally or by happenstance. While food safety has always been a concern for businesses, the consumer is becoming much more aware what is, or isn’t, being done to make sure what they are being served up isn’t more than they bargained for.

The more subtle of the trends in questions are America’s tea consumption. In the past 20 years, the US has more than QUADRUPLED the amount of tea we drink. And here in the States, we like it iced. Over 80% of the worlds iced tea is bought and consumed here and only 15% of America’s tea is served up hot. As a result of this, more and more restaurants, gas stations, and food trucks are offering iced tea as a beverage option for their patrons.

But what do these two trends have to do with Plascon? And what do they have to do with your business? That answer is simple. If you serve your customers tea, chances are you’re serving it from an urn and, if you’re offering a variety of flavors or sweetness, you’re serving it from multiple urns.  Which means at least once a day, you’re draining and cleaning every urn in your business. This process is time consuming and can often times be messy. These factors can at times get this unpleasant task pushed aside and left undone. That’s no big deal, right?  Wrong, and that’s where these trends go hand in hand and where Plascon can help.

In just over two hours an unlined tea urn can become a breeding ground for yeast, bacteria, and mold. Things your customers definitely didn’t order with their lunch. These organisms effect the taste of the beverage, and in some cases can cause medical concerns. Your customers and your business deserve better than that! That’s where Plascon comes in. We offer zip top sealing Saftea^® urn Liners that not only make clean up a breeze, but resist the growth of fungal organisms and bacteria over an extended period of time. What that means is your product is staying fresher, tastier, and safer longer. Saftea^® Liners come in a variety of sizes and ordering options. We can even evaluate your usage, through a phone consultation, and automatically ship your Saftea^® Liners before you run out!

Available for purchase online in 30 or 150 count cases, or you can request your Saftea^® Liner samples today!