FIFO (first in, first out)
Also called: first in first out · stock rotation
FIFO means using the oldest stock first. In a kitchen it's the single highest-return storage discipline there is: most spoilage isn't caused by over-ordering, it's caused by new product landing in front of old product and the old product never being reached.
Why it fails
Not because anyone disagrees with it. It fails because the person putting a delivery away at 7am is in a hurry and the shelf is full. Rotation is a receiving problem long before it's a cooking problem.
The two habits that make it work
- Date on receipt, not on open. A label written when the case lands takes four seconds and removes every later argument about which one is older.
- Rotate at put-away, not at use. The person stocking moves old product forward. Asking a cook mid-service to dig for the older container is asking for the thing that doesn't happen.
Worked example · What a rotation failure costs on one item
- Cream on hand at any time
- 6 quarts
- Quarts binned per week to date expiry
- 1.5
- Cost per quart
- $3.05
- Weekly loss
- $4.58
- Annual loss, one item
- $238
Trivial on its own. Multiplied across the thirty perishable items in a typical walk-in, it's the difference between a 1-point and a 3-point variance — and it's caused entirely by the order things sit in.
Related terms
Spoilage
Product lost to age, temperature or damage before it could be sold.
Waste percentage
The share of purchased food that is thrown away rather than sold — spoilage, overproduction, errors and returns.
Par level
The quantity of an item you want on hand at the start of each order cycle — enough to cover demand plus a safety buffer.