Measure Food Waste to Increase Bottom Line

food wasteAre your trash cans and dumpsters home to more than leftovers? Research shows that four to 10 percent of food is dumped before it ever reaches the patron! Little by little, food waste thrown away starts to add up. By keeping tabs on how much you waste, you can pinpoint problems areas and correct them to minimize waste and increase profit margins.

Conquering 4 Reasons for Food Waste

  • Overproduction: Striving to please variable crowds, restaurants will often prepare too much food, which means all leftovers hit the dumpster. To prevent this, it’s recommended that you use prior figures, such as sales from this time last year, to benchmark how much of a crowd you are going to have this time around. Think about the weather, the day of the week, and what dishes tend to be most popular in your restaurant. Scale or downsize based on these factors. Train your employees as well. It only takes one person overproducing to throw the entire system off-balance
  • Expiration: While it may be tempting to whip up everything in the kitchen in preparation, it’s best to force yourself to cook in small batches to prevent food waste. Try to store leftovers whenever you can and incorporate them into another dish. Some items expire faster than others so it’s important to have a backup plan in mind should you overproduce.
  • Spoilage: A major liability to your restaurant, food spoilage results in state citations, hefty fines, and a lawsuit should one of your patron’s develop food poisoning and goes after you for damages. To prevent spoilage, make sure your employees practice the first-in, first-out (FIFO) storage method. This means the items with the nearest expiration date get used first, and the farthest expiration dates get stored behind them.
  • Trimming: Are your cooks trimming off more than is needed? Teach your employees that less is more. Excess trimmings can be incorporated into other dishes should too much be cut. You may want to consider purchasing pre-cut products if it financially makes sense.

The Importance of Spoilage Insurance

Food waste also happens at no fault of your own! If a walk-in refrigerator fails, all that food needs to be discarded. Not only is this a large loss of money, but also a large loss of revenue. Spoilage insurance compensates your restaurant for that downtime while things get fixed, food gets re-stocked, and your restaurant re-opens.

If you are interested in getting spoilage insurance for your restaurant, give H&K Insurance a call at 617-612-6515.