How to reduce restaurant food waste, and measure what it costs

Where food waste comes from

Waste in a restaurant tends to fall into five groups, and each has a different fix:

• Spoilage: food that expired or was stored badly before it was used
• Over-production: prep that went unsold at the end of service
• Trim and prep waste: peelings, offcuts, and unused parts
• Plate waste: food served and sent back uneaten
• Errors and comps: remakes, wrong orders, and dishes given away

Measure first: log it as it happens

You cannot reduce what you do not count, and waste logged at the end of the week from memory is always short. Record each event where it happens: what, how much, and why. It should take seconds.

Then price it at what you last paid for the ingredient, so each entry carries its real cost.

Turn the log into a number

Add the week's entries and set the total against food sales, so the figure means something from one week to the next.

Find the pattern

Sort the log by reason, by item, by station, and by day. A single big loss is an accident; the same item on the same night, week after week, is a prep list that is wrong. Patterns point to the fix.

Fixes that tend to work

• Prep to a sales forecast, not to habit
• Set par levels for what you keep, so you stop over-ordering
• Label and rotate stock first in, first out
• Check each delivery against its invoice at the door
• Use trim in stocks, staff meals, and specials
• Tighten portion sizes where plate waste is high
• Cross-use ingredients so one item is not stranded in one dish

Waste and true food cost

Food cost looks at what you bought. True food cost subtracts the waste, so it shows what the food you sold actually cost. Tracking waste is what lets you tell a price problem from a waste problem when your food cost rises.