Reduce Food Waste with Smart POS Inventory Management

One of the biggest problems that the restaurant industry faces is food waste. Each year, restaurants lose a whole lot of money because of expired ingredients, inefficient inventory management, and over-prepared meals. When you throw away food not only are you throwing away ingredients, you are also wasting money, resources, and labor. For example, each year restaurants in the USA (United States of America) waste food worth almost $162 billion. Not only does this affect the revenue of the restaurants, but it also contributes straight away to environmental issues as half of the landfills in the country are filled with such food and this creates greenhouse gases as well.

Common causes of food wastage in restaurants

The first step towards solving the problem of food wastage is to know what is causing the issue. Following are the most prevalent reasons for food wastage in restaurants:

• Purchasing ingredients excessively
• Bad inventory management
• Big portion sizes
• Communication issues in kitchens        
• Lack of efficiency in planning menus

Restaurants normally buy more ingredients than they need when they do not track the inventory properly and miscalculate sales forecasts. They also cannot monitor the use of ingredients and their expiry dates if they are not doing it in real-time.

Ways in which POS inventory management software can help reduce food wastage and increase profits

Real-time inventory tracking

A lot of restaurants struggle to manage their ingredient levels and this leads to unwanted wastage. However, POS inventory management software offers real-time inventory tracking and automatic adjustment of stock levels even as the establishment is using those ingredients. Thanks to this, restaurant owners are able to monitor the usage of ingredients to make sure that they are not buying more than they need. They can also set up low-stock alerts so that they can reorder ingredients only when they have to.

Smart order predictions

One of the biggest reasons why restaurants waste food is because they are not able to judge demand properly. This is why they frequently order certain ingredients more than they need to as they have little to no idea of how much they will sell. However, POS inventory management software uses real-time order trends and historical sales data to predict exactly how much of each ingredient they will need. This way, restaurants can order ingredients based on actual demand and this helps reduce excess stock that might be wasted later on. They can also plan promotions and menus by focusing on high-demand items.

Portion control and standardization

If restaurants do not control the portion sizes they are offering to the customers it can add to waste rather quickly. With POS inventory management software restaurants can regularize their portion sizes making sure that kitchen staff and chefs are using consistent ingredient measurements for each dish. There are several benefits of such portion control for restaurants. They can lower their ingredient costs by making sure that they are not overusing ingredients or using them where they do not have to be used. This also improves the consistency in the taste of their dishes and preparations.

Flowing communication between the back and the front office

When restaurant employees misspeak orders it can worsen food. This is where POS inventory management software can integrate with KDSs (kitchen display systems). This has many benefits such as instant transmission of orders to the kitchen which can reduce errors. Chefs also have a clear idea of the dietary restrictions and customizations that they must be aware of. Tracking orders properly makes sure that the food is prepared properly at the first time of asking itself. This also reduces order errors and minimizes ingredient wastage.

Analysis of menu performance

Not each item on the menu will contribute equally to the profitability of a restaurant. Some dishes tend to generate too much waste because either the ingredients are too costly or they are not selling sufficiently enough. This is where POS inventory management software can prove to be helpful by offering detailed analytics on menu performance. This way, restaurants can identify items that are going to waste too much and adjust their menus following that. They can also do away with the low-selling dishes so that they can optimize their usage of ingredients.

Restaurants can always follow some practical strategies to minimize their food wastage. For example, they can ensure that they use their older ingredients before they even buy new stock. They can train staff on how to control portions and handle food efficiently. They can also offer customers lower portions so that they can reduce waste.