Worked scenario
Prepped, not sold, thrown away, not counted
Unrecorded wastage becomes part of food cost permanently, and prep quantities are never corrected because nobody knows they are wrong.
3 min read
Kitchens prep ahead so service can be fast. Over-prepping is safer than running out, so the bias is consistently towards more.
The correction never happens
Without a record of what was discarded, tomorrow's prep is decided the same way as today's. The over-prep repeats, and its cost sits inside food cost where it looks like ingredient prices.
Recording it is uncomfortable and cheap
A single line per item at close. Restaurants that do this typically find waste concentrated in two or three items on particular days, which is a prep-quantity fix rather than a discipline problem.
What changes
- Wastage recorded by item at close of service
- Prep quantities adjusted against actual sales patterns
- Waste separated into prep, spoilage and returns
- Day-of-week and season patterns visible
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