To track waste in your kitchen, weigh and write down everything that goes in the bin for two weeks, split by type: prep trim above what your recipe expects, spoilage, overproduction, plate returns and kitchen mistakes. Put a cost on each line, add them up and divide by the covers you served. That waste cost per cover is the number to bring down, starting with the two or three most expensive lines.
The five kinds of kitchen waste
Splitting them matters, because each one is fixed differently.
- Trim above what you expect. Your standard recipe already counts how much usable product you get from each kilo of lettuce, chicken or beef. What you log is the shortfall when you get less. It often points to a supplier change, a different cut or someone new on prep.
- Spoilage. Food that goes off before it is used: mozzarella that turned, mince past its date, wilted greens. It is nearly always buying too much or storage.
- Overproduction. Prepped veg, dough balls, sauces or mise en place left at close that cannot be served again.
- Plate returns. What guests leave behind: fries, side salad, bread. If the same thing keeps coming back, the portion is wrong.
- Kitchen mistakes. Dishes remade because they were overcooked, burnt or the order was taken wrong.
The guide on how to measure and cost food waste explains the general idea. This is how to apply it in a restaurant.
The waste sheet
A sheet taped next to the scale, with these columns:
| Date | Item | Type | Quantity | Reason | Cost per kg or unit | Cost |
|---|
Rules that make it work:
- A scale in the kitchen. A simple kitchen scale is enough. Without weights, the sheet fills up with "a bit".
- A weighing tub before the bin. Everything that is about to be thrown out goes on the scale first.
- Whoever bins it writes it down, right then. Not at the end of the shift.
- You add the cost later, from your invoices. The team only writes item, type, quantity and reason.
For cooked food, use the cost per cooked kilo, not per raw kilo. If one kilo of raw fries gives you 0.8 kg cooked and the raw kilo plus its oil costs you $2.00, the cooked kilo costs 2.00 ÷ 0.8 = $2.50. For meat and greens, use the cost per usable kilo; the yield tool gives you the real cost per usable kilo after trim and cooking loss.
Worked example: a week in a burger and pizza place
You open for dinner. That week you served 900 covers. This is what came off your sheet:
| Item | Type | Quantity | Unit cost | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pizza dough balls, overproofed | Overproduction | 12 balls | $0.45 each | $5.40 |
| Prepped lettuce, tomato, onion | Overproduction | 3.0 kg | $3.20 per kg | $9.60 |
| Mozzarella | Spoilage | 1.2 kg | $9.50 per kg | $11.40 |
| Ground beef past date | Spoilage | 2.0 kg | $11.00 per kg | $22.00 |
| Romaine, extra trim | Trim | 2.0 kg | $3.00 per kg | $6.00 |
| Fries left on plates | Plate return | 4.0 kg | $2.50 per kg | $10.00 |
| Burgers remade | Mistake | 5 burgers | $4.20 each | $21.00 |
| Total | $85.40 |
Where the romaine line comes from: your recipe counts 750 g usable per kilo. This week you bought 20 kg and got 650 g per kilo. That is 100 g extra loss per kilo: 20 × 0.100 = 2.0 kg, at $3.00 a kilo, $6.00.
By type:
- Spoilage: 11.40 + 22.00 = $33.40
- Mistakes: $21.00
- Overproduction: 5.40 + 9.60 = $15.00
- Plate returns: $10.00
- Trim: $6.00
Waste per cover: 85.40 ÷ 900 = $0.09 per cover.
Per month (four weeks): 85.40 × 4 = $341.60.
Nine cents a plate sounds like nothing. $341.60 a month is food you bought, stored, prepped and threw away.
What to do with what you find
Start with the most expensive lines, not everything at once.
- Ground beef past date ($22.00). Order twice a week instead of once, and rotate stock so the oldest pack is used first. The guide on food safety basics that protect your margin covers the essentials.
- Burgers remade ($21.00). Read the reason column. If orders were taken wrong, the problem is the ticket. If it is doneness, it is the station or the recipe.
- Fries coming back ($10.00). If part of the portion always returns, the portion is too big for your guests. Cut it and update the plate cost; the guide on portion control shows how.
- Overproofed dough and leftover prep. Make dough in two batches: one for opening, one based on how the night is going. Plan quantities by day from your covers over recent weeks.
After the changes, measure another week. If you get down to $55 with the same 900 covers, that is 55 ÷ 900 = $0.06 per cover.
Feed it into your costs and your inventory
If a loss repeats every week, it is no longer an accident; it is part of the cost. Add it to the plate cost of the dish that causes it, or change the recipe so it stops happening.
The waste sheet also explains stock differences. If you bought 30 kg of beef and the stock count says 30 kg were used, but sales only account for 27 kg, the logged waste tells you where the other 3 kg went. See simple inventory for small kitchens to match the two records.
Do it with the calculator
In the food cost calculator you enter the waste you measured for each recipe and see how each dish's cost changes, so you know what every gram you stop throwing away is worth.
Frequently asked questions
Does prep trim count as waste?
The trim already in your standard recipe does not: you pay for it in the plate cost. What you log is the loss above that, for example when your recipe counts 750 g usable per kilo and this week you got 650 g.
How long should I track waste?
Start with two weeks in a row to see the pattern. After that, one week a month is enough, or measure again when you change the menu or a supplier.
What is a normal amount of waste for a restaurant?
There is no number that fits every kitchen. What matters is your own cost per cover and that it falls month by month. Measure it, act on the most expensive lines and measure again.
Who should fill in the waste sheet?
Whoever throws the food away, at the moment they do it. If the head chef fills it in at the end of the night, half of it gets forgotten.