Controlling Food Cost in Production
7
OH 7-1
7-1
 Controlling Foodservice Costs
Chapter Learning Objectives
 Develop a food production chart.
 Describe how a waste report helps control
food costs.
 Use a conversion factor to calculate a new yield
for an existing recipe.
 Determine a recipe’s yield and the number of
portions it will produce.
OH 7-2
Monitoring Standards
 Tasting foods
regularly is one way
to ensure standards
are met. The use of
standardized recipes
is another.
OH 7-3
Food That Does Not Meet
the Restaurant’s Standards
 Should not be served
 Should be salvaged (all or part), if possible
 Should be discarded if not salvageable
 Increase costs
 Reduce profits
OH 7-4
Questions to Ask When Food
Fails to Meet Standards
 Is the recipe clearly written?
 Did the cook understand the recipe?
OH 7-5
Questions to Ask When Food
Fails to Meet Standards continued
 Are ingredients used in the recipe clearly
labeled?
 Are the appropriate ingredients in the proper
containers? (Do ingredients in containers match
the containers’ labels?)
OH 7-6
OH 7-6
Determining Quantity to Produce
 Accurate food production schedules are
important because
 Overproduction causes excessive leftovers and
waste.
 Underproduction causes production shortages and
unhappy customers.
 Both situations reduce profits!
OH 7-7
Determining Quantity to Produce continued
To maximize guest satisfaction, managers help their
production staff know how much to prepare on the proper
day and at the proper time.
OH 7-8
To Ensure Proper Production
 Professional managers always use food
production charts!
OH 7-9
Sample Production Chart
OH 7-10
Food Production Charts
 Created by studying past sales (sales histories)
 Generally, the best predictor of what guests will buy
in the future is what they purchased in the past.
 Created based upon management’s estimate of
future sales
OH 7-11
When Using Production Charts
 Prepare an estimate of the number of guests to
be served.
 Indicate the actual number of items to be
produced.
 Post the production chart where it can be seen
easily.
OH 7-12
When Using Production Charts continued
 Ensure the required standardized recipes are
readily available.
 Periodically check the actual recipe yield against
that listed on the standardized recipe.
OH 7-13
Waste Reports
 Critical to food cost control
 Easily completed
 Should be maintained for each shift
 May indicate
 Where training is needed
 Production concerns that require attention
OH 7-14
Sample Waste Report
OH 7-15
Analysis of Waste Reports
 Determine why each item had to be discarded.
 Develop a strategy to prevent similar future
losses.
 Share findings with those who need to know.
OH 7-16
Recipe Conversions
 Step 1 – Compute the conversion factor.
Desired
yield
OH 7-17
÷
Current recipe
= Conversion factor
yield
Recipe Conversions continued
 Step 1 – Example
 Current yield, fifty portions
 Desired yield, forty portions
Desired
Current recipe
÷
=
yield
yield
40
OH 7-18
÷
50
=
Conversion factor
0.80
Recipe Conversions continued
 Step 2 – Convert ingredients into units that can
be easily multiplied or divided.
 Convert weights to ounces.
 Convert cups, pints, and quarts to fluid
ounces.
OH 7-19
Recipe Conversions continued
 Step 3 – Multiply each ingredient by the
conversion factor.
 Example
96 oz
OH 7-20
x
0.80
= 76.8 oz
Recipe Conversions continued
 Step 4 – Convert ingredient amounts back to
normally used units.
 Example
76.8 oz
OH 7-21
÷ 8 oz =
9.6 c; or 2 qt, 1½ c
Recipe Yields
 Recipe yields must be known.
 Accurate costing of menu items is not possible
without known and consistent yields from
standardized recipes.
 Effective production planning is also impossible
without known recipe yields.
OH 7-22
Recipe Yields continued
 To calculate a recipe yield, compute the total
volume of the recipe by
 Weight—for those recipes where portion size is
determined by weight.
 Volume—for those recipes where portion size is
determined by volume.
OH 7-23
Calculating Recipe Yield
 Weigh or measure only the major ingredients.
 Account for cooking loss, especially for
 Meats
 Vegetables
 Fruit
OH 7-24
How Would You Answer
the Following Questions?
1.
2.
3.
It (is/is not) possible for a cook using a standardized
recipe to create a substandard menu item.
Waste reports indicate when employees overportion
and waste food. (True/False)
How many steps does the recipe conversion process
have?
A.
B.
C.
D.
4.
OH 7-25
Three
Four
Five
Six
A recipe (yield/portion conversion) test is a calculation
of the number of portions produced by a standardized
recipe.
Key Term Review
 Conversion factor
 Food production chart
 Recipe conversion
 Recipe yield
 Taste test
 Waste report
OH 7-26
Chapter Learning Objectives—
What Did You Learn?
 Develop a food production chart.
 Describe how a waste report helps control
food costs.
 Use a conversion factor to calculate a new yield
for an existing recipe.
 Determine a recipe’s yield and the number of
portions it will produce.
OH 7-27