5.1.6. Raw Material Waste
Every kitchen has items that spoil, spill or become unusable. If these losses are not recorded, system stock looks higher than the shelf. Your cost also looks lower than it is. In Ritapos you can record these losses with Zayi ham maddeler (raw material waste) and follow their cost.
Recipe trim loss versus a waste record
The two are often mixed up:
- Trim loss in a recipe (Fire): the loss expected with every sale, such as potato peel for one portion. It is entered in the recipe line's Fire field and leaves stock with each sale. See 5.2. Adding and Editing Recipes.
- Waste (Zayi): an unexpected loss, such as expired milk, a dropped case of tomatoes or a dish prepared wrongly that cannot be served.
Keeping expected loss in the recipe and unexpected loss in waste records gives you two benefits. Recipe costs stay realistic. Waste shows up as its own figure, so you can work on reducing it.
Raw material waste records
Open Stoklar & Reçeteler > Stoklar > Zayi ham maddeler (raw material waste) and click the green + Zayi ham maddeler button. The Zayi ham madde ekle (add raw material waste) panel opens.
- Choose the wasted raw material in Ham madde *. The list shows each raw material with its unit, such as Domates (Gram).
- Enter the quantity in Miktar *. Once you choose the raw material, the field name shows the unit too, such as Miktar (Gram) *. There is a + button next to the field.
- If you like, write the reason in Not (note).
- Click Kaydet (save). To cancel, use İptal.
When the record is saved, a Tamamlandı (completed) window appears.
A waste record holds:
- Ham madde (raw material) and Miktar (quantity): quantity is entered in the smallest unit: grams, ml or pieces.
- Not (note): a free text field for the reason.
- Birim maliyet (unit cost) and Maliyet (cost): calculated by the system.
When the record is saved, the stock of those raw materials drops right away.
How cost is calculated: the unit cost is the smallest unit purchase cost at the time of the record. Cost is unit cost multiplied by quantity.
Example (sample data): 2,000 g of tomatoes spoiled. Tomatoes cost 0.04₺/g. The waste cost is 2,000 x 0.04 = 80.00₺.
Write notes consistently. There is no fixed list of reasons, so using the same words each time makes the report easier to read. Pick short, fixed phrases such as "Expired", "Spoiled", "Spilled" or "Prep error".
Reading the waste report
Open Stoklar & Reçeteler > Stoklar > Zayi ham maddeler. Choose a date range and click Rapor oluştur (create report).
The report's Miktar (quantity) and Maliyet (cost) cards show the total quantity and cost wasted in the period. Next to them is a ring chart by raw material. In the list below, each waste record is one row. The list has these columns: Tarih (date), Ham madde, Miktar, Birim maliyet (unit cost), Maliyet, Durum (status), Not, Ekleyen (added by) and Actions. The Durum column reads, for example, Aktif (active).
The record from the earlier example appears like this: 2.000,00 on the Miktar card and 80,00 on the Maliyet card. The row shows Domates, 2.000,00 Gram, unit cost 0,04 and cost 80,00.
When reading the report, ask:
- Which three raw materials cost the most?
- Does the same reason keep coming back? If "Expired" appears often, review order quantities or minimum stock levels.
- Does waste rise on certain days?
Order quantities and minimum stock levels are covered in 5.1.2. The Stock Screen and Critical Stock.
Wasted orders and wasted product reports
Sometimes the loss is not a single ingredient but a prepared item, such as a dish made wrongly. For these cases you can mark the order itself as waste.
On Siparişler > Aktif siparişler (orders, active orders), open the order's Actions panel. The panel has these sections: Ürün (item), Masa (table), Sipariş detayları (order details), Fiyatlandırma (pricing), Ödeme (payment), Kampanyalar (campaigns), Araçlar (tools), Yazdır (print) and Yönetim (management). The red Zayi (waste) button is in the Yönetim section, together with Tarihi değiştir (change date), İşlem kayıtları (activity log) and a red İptal (cancel) button. Order actions are covered in 6.5. Order Actions.
You can follow orders marked as waste under Raporlar > Zayi ve silinen siparişler (reports, wasted and deleted orders):
- Zayi siparişler: the list of orders marked as waste.
- Zayi ürün raporları: a product-level summary of wasted items.
- Silinen siparişler: the list of deleted orders.
Tips to reduce waste
- Use first in, first out (FIFO) in storage. The expiry date and FIFO tracking form helps with this.
- Stick to standard portions and standard recipes. Portion control is one of the basic steps of cost control (BC Cook Articulation Committee, 2015).
- Record waste right away during the day. If you prefer paper, use the waste and loss record form.
- To estimate the monthly cost of waste, try the inventory waste cost calculator.
Unrecorded waste shows up as a difference in stock counts. To reduce count differences, see 5.1.5. Stock Count.
Sources
- The BC Cook Articulation Committee (2015). Basic Kitchen and Food Service Management. BCcampus. Chapter: Controlling Food Costs. opentextbc.ca
