Trim loss
Also called: trim waste
Trim loss is the weight removed in prep: bone, silverskin, peel, stems, tops and tails. Part of it is recoverable into stocks, sausage, staff meal or a second dish; part is genuinely waste. Separating the two is where the money is.
Worked example · What recovery is worth on one item
- Beef trim generated weekly
- 18 lb
- Currently binned
- 100%
- Value if ground for the burger, at $6.20/lb
- $111.60/week
- Annual value of recovery
- $5,803
The constraint is almost never the ingredient — it's whether there's a dish on the menu that can absorb it consistently.
The practical test for whether a recovery is real: does the recovered product replace something you'd otherwise buy, at a quality your menu actually claims? If yes, credit it in the butcher's test. If it becomes a dish nobody orders, you've moved the waste rather than removed it.
| Trim | Recoverable into | Test |
|---|---|---|
| Beef and pork trim | Ground, sausage, braise, staff meal | Is there a menu item that consumes it every week? |
| Bones and shells | Stock, demi, bisque | Do you actually make stock, or intend to? |
| Vegetable tops and peel | Stock, staff meal | Same test — intent isn't recovery |
| Fish frames | Fumet, stock | Only if used within a day |
| Silverskin, gristle, spoiled | Nothing | This is the honest waste line |
Run the numbers
Yield & EP cost calculator
Related terms
Yield percentage
The share of a purchased ingredient that survives trimming, peeling and cooking to reach the plate.
Butcher's test
A one-time measurement that converts a whole primal or case into a true edible-portion cost.
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.