How Should a Food Worker in Your Restaurant Store Food Using FIFO?

From crisp vegetables to perfectly aged steaks, the quality of your ingredients directly impacts the satisfaction of your customers. Today’s patrons want fresh dishes, and being the restaurant to serve them will keep them coming back for more. 

So, how can you implement a restaurant inventory management strategy that helps you ensure the freshness of your ingredients, all while cutting down on food waste? 

Here's where the First-In, First-Out (FIFO) inventory method comes into play.

This simple yet effective inventory management method ensures you're always using the oldest stock first, minimizing waste and maximizing the quality of the food you serve. Let’s take a deeper look. 

What Does FIFO Stand For? 

FIFO is an inventory method that stands for First-In, First-Out. In a restaurant context, it refers to the practice of using the oldest food items in your inventory first, ensuring fresh ingredients are always readily available and allowing your restaurant to reduce waste.

What is the FIFO Method in a Restaurant? 

The FIFO method, when implemented in a restaurant, is all about organization and clear labelling. When new ingredients arrive, they are stored behind existing stock, ensuring the older items are used first. 

This approach prevents food spoilage (and protects your profit margins), and guarantees your customers receive the freshest possible ingredients in their dishes.

What are the Benefits of Using FIFO for Your Restaurant? 

• Reduced Food Waste: By prioritizing older ingredients, you're less likely to have food items expire before they're used. This translates to significant cost savings on your inventory, and higher profit margins for your restaurant.

• Improved Food Quality: Fresh ingredients make for better-tasting dishes. FIFO ensures you're always using the freshest stock, leading to happier customers and potentially even higher menu prices.

• Enhanced Food Safety: Expired or spoiled food can pose serious health risks. FIFO minimizes the chance of serving unsafe food, protecting your customers and your reputation.

• Streamlined Inventory Management: FIFO promotes a well-organized and efficient kitchen. Knowing exactly what needs to be used first makes it easier for staff to locate ingredients and avoid over-ordering.

• Boosted Staff Efficiency: With a clear FIFO system in place, your staff spends less time searching for ingredients and more time focusing on creating delicious food for your customers.

What are the Disadvantages of the FIFO Method for Your Restaurant? 

• Limited Shelf-Life Items: While FIFO is generally a positive practice, it's important to consider the shelf life of specific ingredients. Very perishable items like fresh herbs or delicate seafood may need to be used before older stock, regardless of the FIFO principle.

• Storage Space Requirements: FIFO can require more storage space as you need to ensure older items are easily accessible and not blocked by newer ones. However, the cost of additional storage is often outweighed by the benefits of reduced waste and improved food quality.

• It Can Be More Time Consuming: Implementing and maintaining a FIFO system requires some initial effort. Staff need to be properly trained, and consistent labelling and rotation of stock take time and attention to detail. The long-term benefits in terms of reduced waste and improved efficiency outweigh this initial investment of time.

How Should You Store Food Using the FIFO Inventory Method? 

To effectively implement FIFO in your restaurant, it's crucial to establish a well-organized storage system that prioritizes easy access and clear visibility of older stock. 

Here are some key tips: 

Allocate dedicated areas in your coolers, freezers, and dry storage for different food categories (produce, dairy, meat, etc.). This promotes organization and makes it easier for staff to locate specific ingredients.

Consider installing shelving that allows for easy rotation of stock. Ideally, shelves should have a slight forward tilt to encourage items like cans or boxed goods to naturally move forward as your team takes them out.

Date all incoming deliveries and clearly mark the "use-by" date on any pre-packaged items. Additionally, label containers of opened or prepped ingredients with the date they were prepared. This allows staff to easily identify which items need to be used first.

When restocking shelves or walk-in coolers, place new items behind existing stock. This ensures the older food gets used first and minimizes the chance of expiration.

Schedule regular audits of your inventory to identify nearing expiration dates and adjust your ordering practices to prevent waste. Focus on prioritizing the use of soon-to-expire items in your menu planning.

Properly train your staff on the importance of FIFO and how to follow it in the kitchen. This includes understanding proper labelling procedures, stock rotation techniques, and the importance of using older ingredients first. Regular reminders and positive reinforcement can help ensure consistent adherence to FIFO principles.

How an Inventory Management System Can Help Your Restaurant With FIFO

Modern inventory management systems can be invaluable tools for implementing FIFO effectively, helping you to better track inventory levels and prevent overordering, set low stock alerts so you don’t run out of inventory, and gain control and visibility of your inventory so that you can constantly increase those all-important profit margins.

Not sure what inventory management system to use? Check out Sculpture Hospitality’s Complete Buyers' Guide to Inventory Systems.