Free food and drink wastage log template
This free wastage log template — printable PDF or editable Excel — records what was thrown, how much, why, what it cost and who signed it off, so the reason column tells you which problem to fix rather than just how much you lost.
Free. No email address, no sign-up — the wastage log downloads straight away.
The number on a wastage log is much less useful than the reason beside it. Two hundred euro of waste in a week caused by over-prep is a forecasting problem; the same figure caused by spoilage is a rotation or ordering problem; caused by returns, it is a kitchen consistency problem. Without a reason column you learn only that you are losing money, which you already knew.
Make it easy to log and it gets logged. That means a sheet on the wall beside the bin, not a form in the office, and short reason codes rather than a sentence. Every venue with an unrealistically clean waste log has staff quietly binning things instead of walking to the office.
Separate the categories that are actually different problems: prep waste, spoilage, over-production, wrong order, customer return, breakage, staff food and drink, and comped items. Bundling comps into food waste hides both — you cannot see whether you have a kitchen problem or a service problem.
Cost it at cost price and total it weekly against your food or beverage cost percentage. A waste figure with no comparison is noise. The same figure expressed as a share of sales is the number that gets attention, and it is the number that shows whether last month's fix worked.
What's on the sheet
Log sheet — blank rows to fill in · Landscape A4 · PDF, Excel and CSV
Header fields
Venue / site · Week commencing · Manager sign-off
Columns
- Date
- Time
- Item wasted
- Qty — With unit
- Reason code — PREP / SPOIL / OVER / ORDER / RETURN / BREAK / STAFF / COMP
- Detail — What actually happened
- Cost
- Initials
Extra columns in the Excel version
- Section — Kitchen / bar / FOH
- Preventable? — Y / N
- Action taken
These are left off the printable version so the columns stay wide enough to write in by hand.
20 blank rows per sheet.
What you get
- ✓Printable PDF, landscape A4, 20 rows per week
- ✓Excel (.xlsx) version with section, preventable and action columns
- ✓CSV version for import
- ✓Eight reason codes printed on the sheet, covering food and drink
- ✓Cost column for a weekly total you can compare against sales
- ✓Initials on every line and a weekly manager sign-off
How to use it
- 1
Put the sheet on the wall beside the main bin and the bar waste point.
- 2
Log every item as it is thrown, with the time, quantity and a reason code.
- 3
Write one line of detail — that is what tells you whether it was preventable.
- 4
Cost each line at cost price, using your most recent invoice figures.
- 5
Total the sheet weekly and express it as a percentage of sales for the same period.
- 6
Pick the single biggest reason code each week and change one thing about it, then check next week's sheet.
Questions
What counts as food waste in a restaurant?
Anything that leaves stock without being sold: prep trim, spoiled or out-of-date stock, over-production, wrongly made orders, customer returns, breakages, staff food and comped items. Log them under separate reason codes — they are different problems with different fixes.
How do I reduce food waste in a kitchen?
Log it with reasons first, then fix the largest code. Over-production usually points at prep quantities set by habit rather than forecast; spoilage points at rotation, labelling or over-ordering; returns point at consistency or portioning on one section.
Should comps and staff food go on the wastage log?
Record them, but under their own codes. They are a real cost and belong in the total, but mixing them into food waste hides whether your problem is in the kitchen or in service.
Do we cost waste at menu price or cost price?
Cost price. Menu price inflates the figure and makes it easy to dismiss as unrealistic — and the number you are trying to manage is what leaving stock actually cost you to buy.
Or stop printing it altogether
Rotahr does this check on a phone — timestamped, with the person who did it attached, reminders when one is due, and a PDF export when somebody asks for a month of records. Same job, no folder to search through.
Templates that go with it
Stock count sheet
This free stock count sheet template — printable PDF or editable Excel — is organised by storage area with columns for unit, opening count, closing count, unit cost and value, so the count matches the order you physically walk the site.
Par level order sheet
This free par level order sheet template — printable PDF or editable Excel — lists items by supplier with a par level, a current count and an order quantity column, so ordering becomes subtraction instead of a judgement call.
Daily takings sheet
This free daily takings sheet template — printable PDF or editable Excel — reconciles counted cash and card settlements against the till report for one trading day, showing the variance, the float carried forward and what was banked.
Free to print, copy and use in your venue — no attribution required. Written for an international audience: where a threshold is a widely used figure it is printed as one, but food safety and employment rules differ by country and change. Check yours before relying on this sheet.
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