10 Ways to Reduce Food Waste in Restaurants (With Examples)
US restaurants and other foodservice businesses generated 12.5 million tons of surplus food in 2024, worth $157 billion — about 14% of foodservice sales, according to ReFED.
Most of it is food left on plates; the rest is overproduced, spoiled, or trimmed away in the kitchen.
Below: the causes, how to track and price waste, 10 ways to cut it, and two real results.
How much food do restaurants waste?
In 2024, 12.4 million tons of US foodservice surplus became waste, and 78.4% went to landfill. Roughly 70% of foodservice waste is plate waste, and cutting it pays back fast:
Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
Surplus food from US restaurants and foodservice (2024) | 12.5 million tons — 17.7% of all US surplus food |
Surplus that became waste | 12.4 million tons; 78.4% of it went to landfill |
Value of foodservice surplus food | $157 billion — about 14% of foodservice sales |
Plate waste share of foodservice waste | ~70% |
Average return on a waste-reduction program | 7:1 benefit-cost ratio over 3 years (114 restaurant sites, 12 countries) |
Payback | 76% of sites recouped their investment in year 1; 89% within 2 years |
Typical reduction | 26% less food waste by weight in 12 months; 58% less over 3 years |
Wasted food also wastes the paid hours spent storing and prepping it — a hidden part of your restaurant labor cost.
What causes food waste in restaurants?
Restaurant food waste is food bought for service that's thrown out instead of eaten. Three types happen in the kitchen (pre-consumer) and one in the dining room (post-consumer):
Type | Where it happens | Common causes | Who can fix it |
|---|---|---|---|
Prep waste | Prep station | Over-trimming, recipes that discard usable parts, inconsistent knife skills | Chef, prep cooks |
Spoilage | Walk-in, dry storage | Over-ordering, poor stock rotation, missing date labels, wrong temperatures | Kitchen manager, purchasing |
Overproduction | Line, batch cooking, buffets | Cooking by habit instead of sales data, oversized batches | Chef, manager |
Plate waste | Dining room, takeout | Oversized portions, unwanted sides and garnishes, dishes that don't match the menu description, remakes | Menu, front of house |
Frequent menu changes and late or incorrect deliveries affect all three kitchen types.
How to Track Food Waste in Restaurants
A one-week waste audit puts a dollar figure on each type of waste:
- Set up four bins: prep, spoilage, overproduction, and plate.
- Weigh each bin after every shift and record it in a waste log (template below).
- Note the item and reason, such as "over-prepped" or "sent back: too salty."
- Convert to dollars using the cost per pound from your invoices.
- Review weekly and re-run the full audit each quarter.
Date | Shift | Type | Item | Weight (lb) | Cost per lb | Waste cost | Reason | Logged by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mon 6/2 (example) | Dinner | Overproduction | Cooked rice | 6 | From invoice | Weight × cost per lb | Batch too large for covers | Line cook |
Real example: The Ship Inn (UK pub) weighed spoilage, prep, and plate-waste bins daily. In a four-week trial, spoilage fell 84%, and plate waste 67%—mainly through portion options and dropping garnishes—and total waste fell 72%. Reported in Champions 12.3 (2019).
How to calculate the cost of food waste
Track waste as a share of food spend:
Example: With monthly food restaurant COGS of $30,000 and $1,500 in logged waste, waste is 5% of COGS. A 26% cut — the 12-month average in the Champions 12.3 study — saves $4,680 a year.
10 ways to reduce food waste in restaurants
Follow the order used in the Champions 12.3 study: engage staff, cut overproduction, fix purchasing, then repurpose what's left. For other levers, see how to reduce food costs.
1. Name a food waste champion and train the team
Make one person per shift own the waste log and a weekly target. Train the team on standard portions, first-in, first-out (FIFO) rotation, and logging every discard with a reason.
Real example: IKEA Food sees the "human factor" as key to success. It named a Food Waste Champion in every store, added smart scales, and reported 20% less food waste within 12 weeks (Champions 12.3).
2. Cook to forecast, not to habit
In the Champions 12.3 study, overproduction drove much of the kitchen waste and was the cheapest to fix. Build prep sheets by item, day, and hour from sales, and cook smaller batches more often.
A restaurant pre-order system makes tomorrow's volume visible today, and UpMenu's analytics and reporting help you forecast demand and plan prep.
3. Order to par levels and rotate stock
Spoilage usually starts at the order guide. Set par levels based on actual usage, order up to par instead of buying in bulk, and ask suppliers for smaller, more frequent deliveries of perishables.
Store new stock behind old (FIFO). Our restaurant inventory management guide covers counts and reorder points.
4. Label, store, and preserve before food turns
Date-label every container, check fridge and freezer temperatures every shift, and keep a shelf-life chart for your fastest-spoiling ingredients.
When something nears its date, preserve it instead of binning it: freeze portions, pickle vegetables, or turn fruit into sauces.
5. Simplify the menu and cross-utilize ingredients
An ingredient used in only one dish is a spoilage risk. Drop single-use ingredients or build a second dish around them.
Remove items that sell slowly or come back half-eaten — a regular menu engineering analysis shows which dishes earn their place.
6. Right-size portions and offer choices
Plate waste is the largest share, so this usually pays off fastest. Ask bussers to flag dishes that come back unfinished and trim those portions first.
Offer half portions and side swaps, drop garnishes nobody eats, and offer to pack leftovers.
7. Turn surplus into specials and staff Meals
Plan for predictable surplus: a daily special built from ingredients near their date, stock from bones and vegetable trim, croutons from day-old bread, and family meals for staff.
Broccoli stems, herb stalks, and carrot tops work in slaws, pestos, and sauces.
8. Donate edible surplus
Safe food you can't sell can go to food banks, shelters, or food-rescue groups. The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects good-faith donors, and the Food Donation Improvement Act of 2022 extends that protection to restaurants donating directly to people in need, free of charge (USDA).
9. Compost what you can't prevent
EPA's Wasted Food Scale ranks prevention, donation, and upcycling as the best options, and landfill, incineration, and drain disposal as the worst.
Compost inedible scraps such as peels, shells, and coffee grounds through a commercial service or a local farm.
Other sustainability practices in restaurants cover packaging and energy.
10. Connect your POS and kitchen screens
Waste data is most useful next to sales data. A kitchen display system clearly shows every order at each station, reducing preparation errors and remakes.
UpMenu kitchen management software connects your POS and KDS in one real-time workflow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mostly food safety and logistics: cooked food must stay at safe temperatures and move quickly, and not every area has a food-rescue partner. Liability matters less than it seems — US law protects good-faith donors.
Wasted food is already in your actual food cost — you paid for it without selling it. It shows up as a gap between actual and target food cost, so calculate the food cost percentage monthly and compare it with your waste log.
A zero-waste restaurant aims to send nothing to landfill: it plans menus around whole ingredients, buys with minimal packaging, donates surplus, and composts the rest. Few reach zero, but the same steps cut waste at any level.
About the author
Senior Content Writer
Digital content creator with +7 years experience in marketing, helping restaurants streamline daily operations.