Produce Yield Chart: USDA As-Purchased to Ready-to-Use Yields for Common Fruits and Vegetables

The numbers below come from USDA's Food Buying Guide, which publishes average yields for hundreds of foods as purchased. USDA describes them as "average yields based on research conducted by USDA" and "a planning and production tool" (Food Buying Guide, Introduction, p. I-4). They were built for USDA's child nutrition programs, such as school meals, but the arithmetic of trim and peel is the same in a restaurant kitchen. Use them to plan and to sanity-check your own tests.

The two formulas

Vegetables

Fruits, including juice yields

Sources: USDA's vegetable yield table and fruit yield table. Many items have several rows for different sizes and preparations — cantaloupe, for example, gives 0.47 lb from an 18-count melon and 0.56 lb from a 15-count one — so match the row to the product and cut you actually use.

Worked example: what an ounce of lime juice costs

The same logic applies to every row. Romaine bought whole at a hypothetical $1.25 per pound costs $1.25 ÷ 0.64 = $1.95 per usable pound, and 12 lb of salad-ready leaves needs 18.75 lb as purchased — $23.44 of lettuce. A recipe that lists usable weight but is costed at the purchase price understates that lettuce line by 36%.

When to trust the table, and when to test

• —Different product, different yield. A pre-cut, ready-to-use product has a yield near 100%, usually at a higher price per pound; compare usable cost, not the sticker. The supplier comparison guide shows how.
• —Different cut, different yield. Carrots cut into sticks and carrots shredded for slaw do not lose the same weight. Use the row that matches your preparation.
• —Different season and supplier. Size, ripeness and quality move trim loss; a table average cannot follow them.
• —Cooking changes it again. These are raw, ready-to-use weights. If the recipe portions a cooked vegetable, measure the cooking loss too, as the cooking yield guide describes.

USDA itself recommends testing when your numbers differ: if a kitchen is "consistently getting a higher or lower yield from a product than the yield specified," it suggests an in-house yield study. The method is the same for any item — weigh a representative amount as purchased, trim or peel it the way your kitchen does, weigh what is usable and divide. Record the trim you can use elsewhere separately from true waste; trim loss explains why.

Marji keeps supplier prices current from accepted invoice lines, so the as-purchased side of this arithmetic stays up to date. The yield itself is a measurement your kitchen supplies: record it in the free recipe cost calculator's usable-yield field, or build it into the recipe quantities you keep in Marji.