How to manage food waste thanks to warehouse stocks? Here is an interesting contribution that can help all restaurateurs to fight one of the main enemies of the catering world: food waste. Before understanding how to combat this annoying flaw in catering, let's try to understand what food waste is and how it is produced.

Food waste: causes

What are the main causes of this type of waste? It may depend on a collaborator, a chef or incorrectness on the part of suppliers.

We talk about food waste in three cases:

• If a collaborator makes a mistake in preparation, portions the products incorrectly, or cuts quantities of product excessively. In this case we could try to remedy the mistake, but otherwise, where we are unable to optimize we will talk about waste.
• In case direct or indirect theft occurs. When we talk about direct theft we are referring to the case in which a collaborator steals products from the warehouse. If, however, we talk about indirect thefts, we are referring to situations in which customers steal a bottle of wine or any dish without paying for it.
• If suppliers are unfair towards customers. In this case the invoices could show a much larger expense than what is actually delivered.

Food waste: some information

According to some surveys, only 1 in 3 restaurants takes action against food waste. During 2020, the world day against food waste was celebrated. The data recorded is truly worrying.

Domestic waste appears to be very significant but waste in the catering sector is no less important. In fact  in Italy each restaurant claims to throw away between 2 and 5 220 liter bags of food waste. In most cases, although restaurateurs say they intend to remedy this situation, they have difficulty stemming the problem.

One of the most popular solutions seems to be to reduce the portions served to customers but restaurateurs often say they feel uncomfortable putting this condition into practice. In reality it would be possible to resolve the issue of waste by trying to act in advance. In particular, an excellent idea could be to monitor warehouse stocks.

How to solve the problem of food waste

Now that we know what we are referring to when we talk about food waste, we can try to define a possible useful operation to combat food waste.

Using warehouse stocks we will be able to monitor the consumption of our catering business. In this way it will be possible to have under control not only the quantity of incoming products but also the quantity of outgoing products in a given period. In this regard it would be better to refer to a good management system. In these terms it would be recommended to prefer an easy-to-use program that can provide various features to customers. Ristomanager could be what's right for you.

The importance of warehouse inventory

So why is it so important to know the warehouse stock? If we wanted to check the consumption that occurred during a specific period of time we should refer to a well-kept file. Warehouse inventory allows us to make this consideration precisely and safely. We can find out the warehouse stock using specific cards very similar to those used for orders. By cross-checking the consumption of a certain product, its sales and warehouse stocks, it is possible to obtain the jobs we need.

This operation can be very valid especially for small and medium-sized catering businesses. Some restaurant management systems are concerned with offering this functionality to their customers. Just like Ristomanager does.

Searching for stocks in Statistics with Ristomanager

Ristomanager is an order management program complete with various features, including the possibility of managing warehouse stocks within the Statistics section.

By accessing the Statistics on Ristomanager you can monitor the consumption of your restaurant, thus calculating your takings, always keeping any food waste under control.