Food cost is usually a restaurant's biggest controllable expense — and inventory is where it's won or lost. Here are ten practices that consistently pay off.

1. Count on a schedule, not "when there's time"

Weekly counts for high-value items (meat, seafood, imported goods) and monthly full counts. Consistency matters more than frequency.

2. Use FIFO — first in, first out

Store new stock behind old stock, always. Most spoilage losses trace back to ignoring this one rule.

3. Set par levels for every item

A par level is the minimum you need on hand between deliveries. Once set, ordering becomes mechanical instead of guesswork.

4. Track waste — every plate of it

Spoilage, kitchen errors, and returns should all be logged. You can't reduce what you don't measure, and patterns appear quickly once you write things down.

5. Watch your top 10 items closely

A handful of ingredients usually drives most of your cost. Give them extra attention: tighter counts, locked storage if needed, and portion checks.

6. Standardise recipes and portions

If three cooks pour three different curries, your theoretical food cost is fiction. Written recipes with exact portions keep costs predictable.

7. Reconcile theoretical vs actual usage

Your POS knows what you sold; your counts show what you used. The gap between the two is waste, over-portioning, or shrinkage — investigate anything above 3–5%.

8. Time purchases to your sales pattern

Use your sales reports to see which days actually drive volume, and schedule deliveries so fresh stock arrives just before peak days, not after.

9. Build supplier relationships — and alternatives

Price fluctuations hit hard when you depend on a single supplier. Keep at least two options for critical ingredients.

10. Let your POS do the heavy lifting

Manual stock books get abandoned. When inventory is deducted automatically with each sale, your live stock levels are always a report away — and reordering takes minutes, not hours.

Small improvements compound: shaving even 2% off food cost often means more profit than a busy extra weekend. Start with counting on a schedule and tracking waste — the rest follows from the data.

10InventoryManagementTipsforRestaurants