# Kitchen Food Waste Calculator

> Turn a kitchen waste audit into waste as a percentage of food used, its cost, and grams and cost of waste per cover served.

Category: Food & hospitality · Applies to: Worldwide · Last updated: 2026-10-29
Interactive calculator: https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/kitchen-food-waste-calculator

Weigh what goes in the bin over a period, compare it with the food bought or used, and put a price on it. Grams per cover lets you compare weeks with different trade.

Also called: Restaurant food waste calculator, Food waste audit calculator.

## Inputs
- Food purchased or used in the period (unit kg; default 1200)
- Food wasted (weighed) (unit kg; default 96)
- Average food cost per kg (default 6.50)
- Covers served in the period (default 3000)
- Currency

## Results
- Waste as % of food used
- Cost of food wasted
- Waste per cover
- Waste cost per cover

## Formula

```
Waste % = Waste kg ÷ Food used kg × 100;  Waste cost = Waste kg × Cost per kg;  Grams per cover = Waste kg × 1000 ÷ Covers
```

Where:
- Waste kg: weight of food thrown away
- Food used kg: weight of food bought or issued to the kitchen
- Cost per kg: average purchase cost of food
- Covers: guests served

## Worked example
1. Waste % = 96 ÷ 1,200 × 100 = 8%.
2. Cost = 96 × 6.50 = 624.
3. Per cover = 96,000 g ÷ 3,000 = 32 g, or 624 ÷ 3,000 = 0.21.

**Result:** The kitchen wasted 8% of the food it used, costing 624, or 32 g and 0.21 per cover.

## What the result means

Separate the waste into spoilage, preparation and plate waste if you can: each has a different fix (ordering, prep methods and portion sizes respectively). Track grams per cover weekly to see whether changes work.

## Assumptions and limits
- Wasted food costs the same per kg as the average food purchased.
- Expensive items (meat, fish) wasted cost more than the average figure suggests; weigh and cost them separately for a sharper picture.

## Questions

### Should unavoidable waste such as bones and peel be included?

Track it, but separately. Unavoidable trim is part of the recipe yield; avoidable waste is what you can reduce.

## Related calculators
- [Food Cost Percentage Calculator](https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/restaurant-food-cost-percentage-calculator)
- [Ingredient Unit Cost Calculator](https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/ingredient-unit-cost-calculator)
- [Percentage Calculator](https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/percentage-calculator)

Source: GM¹X CalcVerse — https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/kitchen-food-waste-calculator