1. Supplier price movement without review
An invoice can be mathematically correct and still be commercially unfavorable. When pack sizes, brands, substitutions, freight, and unit prices change without review, the restaurant absorbs the difference until someone compares normalized unit costs over time.
2. Weak receiving controls
Paying the invoice does not prove the correct quantity, quality, temperature, specification, or credit was received. Receiving discrepancies need a named owner, same-day evidence, and a closed credit loop.
3. Inconsistent inventory counts
Changing count units, storage locations, item mappings, valuation rules, or count timing can create apparent gains and losses that are measurement defects rather than operating facts.
4. Recipe, yield, and portion drift
A recipe cost is only defensible when the current purchase item, pack conversion, usable yield, recipe quantity, and portion standard are connected. Old prices or informal portions weaken the theoretical benchmark.
5. Unrecorded waste and overproduction
Waste that is not recorded still appears in actual food cost, but management cannot distinguish spoilage, preparation error, overproduction, quality rejection, or normal trim. That prevents targeted correction.
6. Uncontrolled comps, promotions, and staff meals
These uses may be legitimate, but they still consume product. Authorization, reason, quantity, and cost visibility are needed so management can separate policy from leakage.
7. Reporting without accountability
A variance report has limited value when it does not identify the owner, action, due date, evidence, and follow-up status. The useful output is not a longer report; it is a smaller number of supported priorities that management actually closes.
What to do first
Do not assign a dollar value to every suspected issue immediately. Confirm the period, source data, units, and evidence first. Then isolate the highest-supported causes without counting the same exposure twice.
This educational guide supports management review. It is not accounting, legal, tax, or financial advice and does not guarantee savings, recovery, or improved profit.