How to Do a Food Waste Audit in a Restaurant
How to run a restaurant food waste audit: what you need, how to weigh and log waste for one to two weeks, the categories to track, how to read the results by cost and what to do next.
What is a food waste audit?
A food waste audit measures what your kitchen throws away over a set period, by item, category and reason, so you know what to fix first. Weigh every discard for one to two weeks of normal trading, log the item, weight, cost and reason, then rank the results by cost.
Most kitchens guess where their waste comes from, and the guess is often wrong. An audit replaces the guess with numbers: a short list of items that account for most of the money, and the reason each one is thrown away.
What you need
How to run the audit
A two-week food waste audit
1Pick normal weeks
Avoid holidays and closures, and cover at least one full week so weekdays and weekends are both in the data.
2Brief the team
Explain that the point is to find waste in the system, not to blame people. Waste that is hidden makes the audit useless.
3Weigh before you empty
Every container of discarded food goes on the scale before it goes in the bin.
4Log item, weight, reason and cost
Use the categories below and the item’s cost per pound or kilogram from the latest invoice.
5Total every day
Add up weight and cost by category and by item at the end of each day, while details are fresh.
6Rank by cost
At the end of the audit, sort items by total cost and pick the top three to fix.
7Work out your waste percentage
Waste weight ÷ food purchased by weight × 100, or the same with costs.
Categories to track
| Category | Examples | Usual fix |
|---|---|---|
| Spoilage | Expired dairy, wilted greens, product past its date | Order smaller and more often, rotate first in, first out |
| Prep trim | Peels, stems, bones, fat trim | Yield tests, better trimming, use trim in stocks and specials |
| Overproduction | Leftover batches, unsold soup, prepped items past their hold time | Prep to a sales forecast, prep in smaller batches |
| Plate waste | Food guests leave on the plate | Check portion sizes and sides that come back untouched |
| Mistakes | Wrong orders, burnt or dropped items | Training, clearer tickets, station setup |
Reading the results
Rank by cost, not by weight. Ten pounds of salmon trim at $11.50 a pound is $115 of waste; thirty pounds of romaine at $1.50 a pound is $45. The heaviest bin is often not the most expensive one.
Then put a percentage on it. If the kitchen logs 169 lb of waste in two weeks against 2,600 lb of food purchased, waste is 169 ÷ 2,600 × 100 = 6.5% of purchases. The food waste calculator works this out by category, along with what the waste costs per week and per year.
After the audit
- •Fix the top three items first: change the order quantity, the par level, the prep amount or the portion.
- •Build trim and near-date product into specials and staff meals.
- •Donate safe surplus where local rules allow, and compost what cannot be used.
- •Keep the waste log running at a lighter level, and repeat a full audit after the changes to check the number moved.
For the full set of fixes, from ordering to menu design, see how to reduce food waste in restaurants.
Food Waste Audit FAQ
Food waste audit FAQ
What is a food waste audit?
How long should a restaurant food waste audit last?
Should I weigh waste or estimate it?
What is a good food waste percentage?
How often should I do a food waste audit?
Put a number on your food waste
The free food waste calculator gives your waste % of purchases, what waste costs per week and per year, and the category to fix first.
Calculate your food waste