3 Ways To Curb Food Waste At Your Restaurant

Ask any restaurateur who has watched their dream of opening a restaurant come crumbling down around them what went wrong, and often, you’ll hear a common theme: They weren’t paying enough attention to food cost, and specifically food waste. For anyone interested in reducing their back-of-house costs, we’ve got a few tips for curbing that waste for good.

Get serious about your food costs

Food prices fluctuate, and if you feel like you’ve got a particularly good deal on a particular piece of inventory, you may not be paying as much attention to the amount you’re wasting. To get back in touch with the food you’re buying, schedule a visit to some of your suppliers and vendors. Talk to growers at local farms. Immerse yourself in the world that these purveyors are living in, and see exactly how much work in takes to produce the product you are selling in your restaurant. Learning to stop thinking of food as this mysterious product that arrives a few times a week on the back of a truck, but as the product of the cooperative labor and toil of the people producing it will help you to value food differently.

Start tracking your waste

Any food wasted in the kitchen, whether through spoilage, spills, and accidents, or customer returns or misfires, should be tracked either on a simple sheet of paper or by using more sophisticated pieces of software. By keeping a record of the food coming in and the food wasted, you’ll develop a clearer picture of exactly where your business may be leaking money. Simply recording the losses, can help reduce food costs by as much as 6 percent.

Consider donating unused food to a food bank

Many restaurants end the evening with plenty of prepared food left over. There are many organizations that will help you put those meals to good use. Not only does this help the people in your community that need it most, but regular donations may also make you eligible for various tax breaks. Worried about the potential liability of donating your leftover food to community organizations? Don’t be. The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act protects restaurants against those kinds of liability claims. Even if someone happens to get sick, you’ll be protected.