As we all know, the problem of food waste not only affects the environment and the economy as a whole, but also results in higher costs for restaurants.
There are many opportunities for food waste in restaurants, starting from the process of selecting ingredients, storing, trimming, and cooking. If we don’t know the origin and cause, we won’t be able to plan to control waste. Normally, food waste that often occurs in restaurants comes from 5 main causes as follows:
1. Overbuying
Waste from buying too many ingredients is often caused by a lack of planning for ordering. Instead of predicting the use of ingredients in advance from sales data, the store orders out of habit or buys extra because it is afraid of affecting sales if it does not meet demand. It also includes buying in large quantities to get a discount, but forgets that no matter how cheap the ingredients are, if they expire, it is still considered waste, resulting in high ingredient costs.
The solution can be solved by forecasting sales in advance through sales data from the POS system, including regular stock counts, which will help the store know which ingredients are left and which are running low, allowing them to plan their orders appropriately.
Another way to know how much raw materials to order each time is to find Par Level Inventory or calculate the amount of raw materials used in each ordering round, which will depend on three important factors: the average amount of raw materials used each week, which is obtained from weekly stock counts, the weekly raw material delivery rounds, and the amount of raw materials left over for safety stock.
2. Spoilage
There are many causes of spoiled ingredients, ranging from receiving low-quality ingredients without checking, improper storage of ingredients, or not planning to use ingredients in advance, causing ingredients to expire. Although many restaurants try to pay attention to buying ingredients at cheap prices, they end up wasting money from poor storage of ingredients.
When we get the ingredients, we should separate them and store them appropriately for each type immediately, instead of putting them all together in the refrigerator. For example, putting the vegetables we buy in a plastic box appropriately instead of putting them in a plastic bag and putting them in the refrigerator will help reduce the chances of the vegetables being bruised.
Using the FIFO (First in-First out) principle in raw material management will help the raw materials that were ordered first to be used first. There must be a clear separation of areas for raw materials that were brought in first and last, otherwise they may be mixed up. Using colored stickers or attaching dates to raw materials that come in on different days will help prevent confusion among employees.
In addition, regularly checking the refrigerator to make sure it is not reaching the specified temperature can also help extend the shelf life of ingredients so that they do not expire before they should.
3. Over Trimming
Excessive cutting of ingredients may not sound like it will affect waste that much, but in fact, it is a point that almost every restaurant neglects, causing more ingredients to be lost than they should be, even though they have not expired or rotted. One reason is that the restaurant has never specified how each ingredient should be cut, so each kitchen staff will cut according to their own feelings.
Calculating the yield (amount of usable ingredients) as a standard and specifying the cutting method for each ingredient also helps the kitchen staff cut according to the restaurant's standards and helps prevent unnecessary waste.
Another great way to reduce waste and ease the workload of kitchen staff is to buy pre-cut ingredients from suppliers. Although it may cost more, when compared to the time and labor saved, it may be worth it overall.
Finally, using leftover items or trimmed ingredients such as vegetable scraps, meat scraps, and bones to create new menus will help increase sales and reduce waste in terms of ingredients. For example, a sushi restaurant uses leftover salmon bones to make a salmon salad, or cut off salmon heads to make fish heads in soy sauce, etc.
Learn how to properly store each type of ingredient and keep it fresh to extend its shelf life and increase your restaurant's profits in this free online course, "Professional Ingredient Storage Techniques," taught by Chef Wilment Leon.
4. Over-production
Another cause of food waste is incorrect sales estimates, which cause the preparation or cooking of ingredients more than needed. Instead of making orders as customers order, they make large quantities at a time because they think that doing it all at once will save on costs and time. Or, especially buffet restaurants that have to prepare food before customers arrive, causing the cost of ingredients to immediately increase because the income is less than expected.
Analyzing sales statistics for each menu on a daily basis will help chefs prepare food that is more in line with demand. Because no matter how cheap the cost of a dish is, if customers don't choose to serve or order, sometimes restaurants have to do promotions to sell at low prices without making a profit because they are afraid that the food will expire.
5. Over Portioning
Sometimes, serving too much food to customers is not always an advantage. Because in addition to customers not being able to finish their food or eating too much to the point of not being able to order other dishes, and causing the cost of that dish to increase, it also causes the leftover food to become waste that must be thrown away for no reason.
This is because the restaurant did not specify the amount of ingredients per dish, or Portion control, from the beginning, which means that the same menu may come out with different quantities.
In addition to determining the amount of food per dish (Portion control) which helps reduce waste, the key people who play a part in reducing waste are the servers because they are the ones who see which dishes customers often do not finish or which ingredients are on the plate that customers do not eat much. They can tell the chef to adjust the format or quantity to be more appropriate.
However, no matter what causes food waste, it can be seen that the most important factor that allows restaurants to reduce waste is the employees themselves, from the steps of ordering ingredients, storing, preparing, cooking to serving. Therefore, training employees to see the importance and methods of reducing food waste, including continuous monitoring, is the most important thing that will allow restaurants to reduce the chances of food waste effectively.
Click to read Zero Food Waste Program to reduce costs, increase profits, and reveal the secret recipe for reducing food waste.
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