Overproduction waste calculator
The kitchen cooks a buffer because it does not know how many children will eat. Enter portions, overproduction, portion cost and working days — you will see the yearly złoty in the bin, and what remains after tighter facility orders.
We count only the food cooked above portions issued. Packaging, kitchen time and delivery sit there anyway — this is the raw product in the bin.
Where 18,720 PLN comes from
The formula is short: portions per day × (overproduction ÷ 100) × portion cost × working days per year. One hundred portions, 6%, 12 PLN of food and 260 days is 100 × 0.06 × 12 × 260 = 18,720 PLN. That is not a guess — it is the arithmetic of what the kitchen cooked above issue.
A 6% buffer on a fixed card against the enrolment list is typical: someone is ill, someone is on a trip, the pot still goes out for 100. A facility order usually lands around 3%. A morning absence correction — around 1.5%, if the deadline is before production, not after.
The calculator does not guess your pot. You type the percentage you know from issue notes or returned weight. If you do not measure — 6% is an honest starting point, not an excuse.
Why overproduction hurts more than the spreadsheet shows
A fixed card cooks for ghosts
The facility has 100 enrolled, 85 eat, and the kitchen has cooked for 100 for three years “because that is how it was”. Those 15 portions are not a HACCP reserve — they are children who are not there. A kindergarten order closes the number before production.
A morning correction is cheaper than a return
An absence reported at 8:00 is a portion you do not cook. A return at 14:00 is a portion you already paid for. Dietido collects corrections in the window before production — that is the second step in the comparison, not magical zero waste.
12 PLN, not 18.50 PLN
The bin gets food, not lost revenue. The 18.50 PLN set price does not come back, because the child was not eating anyway — but 12 PLN of product already left the store. That is why this field is portion cost, not the facility rate.
Overproduction: common questions
Portions per day × overproduction % × food cost per portion × working days per year. At 100 portions, 6%, 12 PLN and 260 days that is 18,720 PLN. The month is that figure divided by 12.
Without facility orders kitchens often keep 5–8% “for peace of mind”. That is not a sanitary-inspection rule — it is a buffer for absences nobody reported. After orders it drops; after morning corrections it drops again.
No. They are typical levels when the facility submits a count before production and corrects absences in the morning. Your result depends on the deadline and on whether the kitchen actually cooks to the order, not to the old card.
So you see the figure that hurts at tax time and at purchasing. 21 days × 12 months = 252 days. The example uses 260 — closer to a kindergarten calendar without long breaks in the middle of the year.
Yes, the same percentage. There, 6% raises portion cost and break-even. Here, 6% is a separate bill: how many zloty leave the store and do not come back. Run both tools on the same numbers.
18,720 PLN will not come back from the compost.
On the demo we show how Dietido collects facility orders and morning corrections before the pot starts — instead of cooking to last month’s enrolment list.
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