Start a waste log your team will actually fill in

Every kitchen throws food away, and most have no idea how much, of what, or why. The bins fill up, the collection comes, and the cost disappears into a food cost percentage that is a point or two higher than it should be. Without a record, there is nothing to reduce, because nobody can say what the waste actually is.

A waste log is the simplest fix. It is a short record, kept beside the bin, of everything thrown away: what it was, how much, and why. Kitchens that keep one find, almost always, that a handful of items and reasons account for most of their waste, and that most of those are fixable. Kitchens that try to keep one and give up usually do so for the same few reasons: the log takes too long, asks for too much, or gets people into trouble.

This guide sets out a waste log designed to be filled in: an entry that takes about ten seconds, three categories worth separating, the routine that keeps it going, and how to read a week of it. Every figure in it is an example.

The waste log works for three reasons, and only one of them is the data.

It makes waste visible. A bin is anonymous. A log that says "2.4 kg chips, over-prepared, Saturday lunch" is not. Seeing the same item written down three times in a week changes how a team thinks about it.

It points to causes. The reason column is what turns a list of discarded food into a list of fixable problems: over-preparation, spoilage, trim, mistakes, plates sent back.

It is the starting point for everything else. A waste audit, a better prep list and a change to a recipe all start with knowing what is wasted. Our guide to reducing food waste in a restaurant kitchen covers the reduction side; the log is how you know where to begin.

The single most important design choice is the length of an entry. Every extra field makes the log less likely to be used. A good entry has five things:

That is all. No prices, no calculations, no long descriptions. The value can be worked out later from the quantity and the item's cost. The person standing by the bin with a tray of food in their hands should be able to write the entry in about ten seconds, or they will not write it.

The reason column matters most, and it works best with a short, fixed list. Three broad categories cover most kitchen waste, each with a few reasons beneath it.

Food that went off before it could be used: past its date, mouldy, wilted, freezer-burned, stored at the wrong temperature. Spoilage points to ordering, storage and rotation.

Food thrown away during preparation or production: trim, peelings, offcuts, over-production of prepared items that were not used, batches that went wrong. Prep waste points to prep lists, yields, recipes and technique.

Food that left the kitchen and came back, or never reached the guest: plates left unfinished, dishes sent back, dropped or wrong orders, remakes. Plate waste points to portion sizes, the menu and the pass.

Keeping these three apart is what makes the log useful. A kitchen with mostly spoilage has an ordering problem. One with mostly prep waste has a planning problem. One with mostly plate waste may be serving portions guests do not want.

Within the three categories, give the team a short list of reasons, printed on the log itself, so they tick or write one word rather than describing what happened:

Ten reasons are plenty. A list of thirty becomes a list nobody reads. If something does not fit, an "other" line with a word or two is fine, and a reason that keeps appearing under "other" can join the list.

Estimates are better than nothing, but weights are much better. A cheap scale beside the main bin, or the kitchen's ordinary scale used for the purpose, turns "some chips" into "2.4 kg". Weights can be added up, compared and costed; estimates cannot.

Weigh in containers where you can: tare the scale with an empty tub, scrape the waste into the tub, read the weight, empty it into the bin. It takes a few seconds more than throwing it straight in, and it makes the log far more useful.

For plate waste, weighing every plate is unrealistic during service. Instead, collect plate scrapings in one container per service and weigh it at the end, recording it as a single entry. That is enough to track the trend.

Put the log where waste happens: beside the main bin, on a clipboard or a sheet fixed to the wall at eye height, with a pen on a string. If waste is thrown away in more than one place, such as the prep area and the pass, put a log at each.

A paper log works well. So does a tablet or a shared sheet on a phone, if the team prefers it, as long as entering a line is just as quick. The format matters far less than the location: a log that is three steps away from the bin will not be filled in.

A waste log becomes part of kitchen routines only if it is attached to moments that already happen.

Each of these is a moment the kitchen already has. The log simply rides along with it.

The fastest way to kill a waste log is to use it to tell people off. If a cook who writes "dropped tray of fish, 1.2 kg" is criticised for it, the next tray goes straight in the bin without an entry, and the log becomes a record only of waste nobody minds admitting.

Make it clear from the start that the log is about the kitchen, not the person. The initials are there so the chef can ask what happened, not so someone can be blamed. Thank people for logging, especially for logging their own mistakes. A kitchen where honest entries are welcomed gets honest logs.

Once a week, someone, usually the head chef, reads the log. It takes about fifteen minutes and follows a simple routine.

That last step is the whole point. A log that is read but never acted on is a log that will stop being filled in.

An invented kitchen's log for one week, summarised:

The top five by weight are chips, side salad, bread, lamb trim and salad leaves. Costed roughly at example prices, the over-prepared chips and potatoes and the uneaten side salads and bread account for most of the value.

The chef makes two changes. The potato prep for weekday lunches is set from the bookings rather than from habit, using the approach in our guide to prepping from forecast. The side salad becomes optional rather than automatic. Two weeks later, prep waste and plate waste are both noticeably lower, and the log shows it. Our guide to how much restaurant food waste really costs explains how to put a full cost on figures like these.

Weights are easy to record; money is what persuades. Convert the top lines to cost each week, using the cost per kilogram as bought, adjusted for any preparation already done. A kilogram of prepared, cooked chips cost more than a kilogram of raw potatoes, because it carries the labour and the oil as well.

There is no need to cost every line. The top five or ten usually account for most of the value, and costing them is enough to set priorities.

Prep waste deserves particular attention, because it is food the kitchen bought and then spent time and energy preparing before throwing it away. Over-production is the largest part of it in many kitchens: prepared items made to a habit rather than a forecast, which do not keep until the next service.

The log shows which prepared items are most often thrown away, and after which services. That is exactly the information a better prep list needs. Our guide to the prep list that ends the morning guesswork shows how to set quantities from demand rather than habit.

Trim is different. Some trim is unavoidable, but a sudden rise usually means a change in the product or the technique: a new supplier's cut, a new cook, a different size. The log catches it; a conversation with the supplier or a demonstration on the bench fixes it.

One week of the log tells you a lot. Several weeks tell you more. Keep a simple summary of each week, the total weight in each category and the top five items, and look back over a month at a time. Food waste tracking over time shows whether the changes you made worked, and whether new problems are appearing.

Seasonal patterns appear too: more spoilage in hot weather, more plate waste on a particular menu, more prep waste in quiet weeks. Knowing the pattern lets you plan for it.

Bars waste too, and the same log works behind the bar with a few changes to the reason list. Wine by the glass poured away because it has been open too long, cut fruit and garnishes past their best, a drink remade because it was wrong, a keg's last litres that are not fit to serve, spilled and dropped drinks: each is stock paid for and not sold.

Keep a short log at the bar, with reasons such as "wine past best", "garnish", "remade", "spilled" and "line clean". Record by volume rather than weight for drinks. Read it alongside the bar's stock checks, because unrecorded waste is one of the commonest reasons a bar's figures do not add up. Our guide to a bar stock checklist for the end of the night covers where the bar's waste check fits into closing.

After a month of logging, a kitchen should be able to answer a few questions without guessing. What are the five items we throw away most, by weight and by value? Is our waste mostly spoilage, prep waste or plate waste? Which service produces the most? What did we change, and did it work?

If the log can answer those, it is doing its job. The weight in the bins may not have fallen much yet, because the first month is mostly about finding out. The second and third months, after changes made from what the log showed, are when the totals usually start to come down.

If the log cannot answer them, look at the entries. Missing days, vague reasons and estimates instead of weights mean the log needs simplifying, or more encouragement, before it can help.

A log captures what the team writes down. Some waste always escapes it: a quick scrape into the bin during a rush, the bread basket cleared without a thought. Once or twice a year, or when the log suggests a problem it cannot explain, run a full waste audit: weigh everything that goes into the bins for one service, sorted into the three categories. Our guide to a waste audit you can run in a single service explains how. The audit checks the log, and the log keeps the audit's lessons going.

In some places, how food waste is disposed of is also regulated. In England, workplace recycling rules changed on 31 March 2025, requiring businesses to separate food waste from other waste for collection, with micro-firms of fewer than ten full-time equivalent employees given until 31 March 2027. The government's guidance on simpler recycling in workplaces sets out what is required. Other places have their own rules, so check where you trade. A separate food waste bin also makes weighing waste much easier.

The waste log itself, the weights and the reasons, stays on your own sheet today: servearound does not record waste. A couple of things in servearound help explain what the log shows.

Kitchen analytics show a remake rate and flag the tickets that were fired again, so remakes, one source of plate waste, appear as a number. The menu report in Analytics shows units sold for every dish over any range of dates, which helps set prep quantities from what actually sells rather than from habit. When the kitchen runs out of something during service, 86 it on the till through the point of sale and it shows as sold out on every table's menu at once. If you would like to see it, get in touch.

The item, the quantity by weight, the reason from a short list, the time or service, and the initials of the person throwing it away. Nothing more.

Three broad ones: spoilage, prep waste and plate waste, with a few reasons under each. Keeping them separate shows whether the problem is ordering, preparation or the plate.

Weighed, wherever possible. A scale by the bin turns estimates into figures that can be added up, compared and costed.

Keep the entry to about ten seconds, keep the log by the bin, attach it to moments that already happen, read it every week, act on it, and never blame anyone for an honest entry.

Weekly, for about fifteen minutes: total each category, list and cost the top five items, look for patterns, and choose one or two changes for the week.

A waste log is an ongoing record kept by the team. A waste audit is a one-off measurement of everything wasted in a set period, which checks how complete the log is.

Food thrown away during preparation: trim, peelings and offcuts, failed batches, and prepared items that were over-produced and not used.

Yes, as a single weighed entry per service. It shows whether portions, sides or the menu are leading to food guests do not eat.

Not as waste. Food used for staff meals has been eaten, which is a better outcome than the bin. Record it separately if you track staff food, so the log shows only what was thrown away.

The first month mostly shows where the waste is. The changes it leads to usually start reducing the totals in the second and third months, as long as someone reads the log weekly and acts on it.

Yes. Paper by the bin works well. A tablet or shared sheet is fine too, as long as an entry is just as quick.

A waste log your team will fill in is short, placed by the bin and never used for blame. Each entry records the item, the weight, a reason from a short list, the time and initials, and takes about ten seconds. Separate spoilage, prep waste and plate waste, because they point to different fixes: ordering and storage, prep planning and yields, and portions and the menu.

Attach the log to kitchen routines that already happen, read a week of it every week, cost the top five items and change one or two things. Track it over months, run a full waste audit now and then to check what the log misses, and thank people for honest entries. A log that leads to visible changes is one that keeps being filled in.