From forecast portions to ingredient requirements.

Choose a restaurant and a period: a service, a day or the interval until the next delivery. List expected recipes and their volumes. A cover forecast must be translated into dish quantities before ingredients can be calculated.

Consider 80 portions of grilled chicken and 40 chicken salads, using 150 grams of prepared chicken per grilled portion and 100 grams per salad. Adapt these weights to the restaurant’s recipe specifications.

Multiply each recipe volume by its chicken quantity, then add the results in a common unit. The 80 portions require 12 kilograms of prepared chicken. The 40 salads require 4 kilograms. Total requirements are therefore 16 kilograms.

Apply the same approach to other ingredients. A sauce shared by several dishes must be included in each use, without counting a preparation twice when it is already included in the base quantities.

The calculation(80 × 0.150 kg) + (40 × 0.100 kg) = 16 kg

Check whether the recipe specifies raw or prepared weight. With an assumed yield of 80%, 1 kilogram purchased provides 0.8 kilograms usable in portions. This example therefore requires 20 kilograms raw to obtain 16 kilograms prepared.

Use a yield appropriate to the product and preparation process. If the recipe already expresses raw quantities including yield, do not apply a second correction: that would artificially inflate requirements.

The calculationRaw requirement = 16 kg ÷ 0.80 = 20 kg

Assume 6 kilograms of usable raw inventory and a confirmed delivery of 4 kilograms before preparation. Without an additional reserve, 10 kilograms remain to be covered. All values must use the same raw basis and period.

Stock reserved for another use, unavailable or unsuitable for service must not count as usable. Likewise, a delivery arriving after the requirement cannot cover that service. If the calculation is negative, the additional requirement is zero.

The calculationAdditional requirement = maximum of 0 and (20 − 6 − 4) = 10 kg

With indivisible 3-kilogram packs in this example, covering 10 kilograms requires 4 packs, or 12 kilograms. The extra 2 kilograms result from rounding to pack size; they do not represent increased demand.

Any reserve should be decided separately based on uncertainty, lead times and the ability to use the product. Automatically adding a percentage is not a universal rule. Also check storage capacity and preparation constraints before finalizing purchases.

Compare forecast portions with portions sold, then examine leftovers and consumption. This helps distinguish demand errors from unsuitable portion weights, different yields or incorrect inventory data.

Praedixa connects forecasts with recipe specifications to calculate ingredient requirements. Purchasing remains an operational decision that depends on availability and your organization. This guide explains the calculations; it does not describe an order automatically sent to a supplier.