How to Set Par Levels in a Restaurant

To set a par level, take how much of an item the kitchen uses between one delivery and the next, add a safety buffer for busy days and late trucks, and round to the pack size the distributor sells. At order time, subtract what is on the shelf from the par and order the difference.

The formula is simple. The harder questions are which items deserve a par at all, how big the buffer should be, and how often to change the numbers. A par that is too high ties up cash and walk-in space and raises the risk of spoilage. A par that is too low leads to 86'd dishes and runs to the store at retail prices.

The par level formula

Par level = (average daily usage x days until the next delivery) + safety stock.

Each part needs a real number:

Average daily usage. Pull at least four weeks of usage for the item, from inventory counts or from what was ordered when stock levels held steady. Divide by the number of days the kitchen was open.
Days until the next delivery. Count from the day the order arrives to the day the next order for that item arrives. A kitchen with deliveries on Tuesday and Friday has two different gaps (three days and four days), so it may need two pars for the same item.
Safety stock. A buffer for the busiest day of the period, a short delivery or a truck that comes late. Many kitchens start at 10% to 20% of the usage in the period and adjust from there.
Pack size. Round the result up to whole cases (or whole units, if the distributor will break a case).

Here is an example with made-up numbers. A kitchen uses about 1.5 cases of chicken thighs a day and gets deliveries on Tuesday and Friday.

Delivery	Days to next delivery	Usage in that gap	Safety stock (15%)	Par (rounded)
Tuesday	3	4.5 cases	0.7 cases	6 cases
Friday	4	6 cases	0.9 cases	7 cases

If the Thursday count shows 2 cases on the shelf, the order for Friday is 7 minus 2, or 5 cases.

Which items need a par level

A common mistake is putting a par on every line of the order guide. Most of what a restaurant buys does not move steadily enough for a par to mean anything.

FareFood's ordering data for the 90 days to November 4, 2026 shows how lopsided a typical buying pattern is. The median restaurant ordering through FareFood bought roughly 260 to 310 different items in that time. The most-ordered fifth of those items made up about three quarters of all cases ordered. About a quarter of the items were ordered only once in those 90 days, and about 3 in 10 came up in at least half of the weeks (all figures are medians across restaurants).

Method: completed orders placed through FareFood in the 90 days to November 4, 2026, test orders excluded; counts of items, cases and orders only, no prices; each figure is a median across restaurants, and no restaurant's orders are shown.

For setting pars, the numbers sort the order guide into three groups:

The weekly core. Items ordered in at least half of the weeks, about 3 in 10 of the list. These are the proteins, dairy, produce staples, fryer oil and paper goods that move every week. Every one of them should have a par, and these pars deserve the most care because they drive most of the cases.
The occasional items. Items that show up some weeks and not others, such as a sauce for a weekend special or a seasonal vegetable. Set a par only if the item is on the menu every day; otherwise order it against the prep list for the dish that uses it.
The one-offs. About a quarter of items were ordered once in 90 days. A par on these just creates dead stock. Keep them in a separate section of the order guide and order them when a recipe or event calls for them.

A restaurant buying around 300 items might end up with pars on roughly 90 of them. That is a list a closing manager can count in one pass.

How to set par levels step by step

Export 90 days of orders. Use the order history from each distributor account or from the ordering system. Sort items by how many weeks they were ordered.
Pick the par items. Start with everything ordered in at least half of the weeks. Add any item the menu cannot run without, even if it is ordered less often.
Measure usage. For each par item, work out average daily usage from inventory counts. If counts are not reliable, use cases ordered divided by days open, as long as the shelf level did not change much over the period.
Map delivery days. Write down each distributor's delivery days and order cutoff times. An item's par depends on the gap until that distributor's next truck, not the kitchen's busiest day.
Add safety stock. Start at 10% to 20% of the usage in the gap. Use more for items with no easy substitute, and less for items with a short shelf life.
Check shelf life and storage. A par should never be larger than what the kitchen can use before the product goes bad, or more than the walk-in or dry storage can hold.
Write the pars into the order guide. Put the par next to each item, in the same order the kitchen counts the shelves, so the person ordering counts and fills in the difference without hunting.

When to change a par level

A par is a starting point. It needs adjusting when the business changes:

Menu changes. A new dish or a removed dish changes usage right away. Recalculate pars for every ingredient involved.
Seasonal volume. Patio season, holidays and slow months can swing usage by a large margin. Some kitchens keep a summer par and a winter par.
Delivery schedule changes. A distributor dropping a delivery day lengthens the gap, and every par for that distributor's items goes up.
Repeated shortfalls or waste. If an item runs out before the truck twice in a month, raise the par. If it is thrown out or sits for more than a cycle, lower it.

A quick monthly review of the weekly core, comparing par to actual usage, keeps the numbers honest without turning into a project.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a par level in a restaurant?

A par level is the amount of an item the kitchen should have on hand right after a delivery so it lasts until the next delivery, with a small buffer. At order time, the kitchen orders the par minus what is already on the shelf.

How much safety stock should a par level include?

Many kitchens start with 10% to 20% of the usage between deliveries. Raise it for items with no substitute or an unreliable delivery, and lower it for items that spoil quickly.

How often should par levels be updated?

Review the pars on core items once a month and recalculate them after any menu change, seasonal shift in volume or change in delivery days.

Should every item on the order guide have a par level?

No. Pars work for items ordered most weeks. Items bought once or occasionally are better ordered against the prep list or the menu they support.

Putting pars to work

Good par levels turn the weekly order into a count and a subtraction, and they keep cash out of the walk-in. FareFood connects the distributor accounts a restaurant already has, compares prices on every item across them, and lets the kitchen order from all of them in one cart; see how it works at fare.food.