How Much Aluminum Foil Does a Kitchen Use? Roll Yield Explained

Foil is bought by the roll and used by the sheet, and nobody thinks in square feet. Turning one into the other takes three lines of arithmetic, and it tells you whether a minimum order is a month of foil or a year of it.

What one roll holds

An 18 in × 1000 ft roll is 1,000 feet long and 1.5 feet wide, so it holds 1,500 square feet of foil. Cut into lengths, that is:

The figures assume no waste. In real kitchens a roll gives a little less, because foil is folded over rims and torn unevenly, so allow about 10 to 15 per cent.

How long a roll lasts

Divide the sheets per roll by the sheets you use in a day. A kitchen that covers or lines 40 pans a day at 18 in a pan uses about 60 ft of foil, so one roll lasts over 16 days. A busy catering operation using 200 pans a day goes through a roll in about three days. Work your own figure out from a week of real use rather than a guess, because foil is the item people most underestimate.

What the minimum order means

The minimum order here is 7 rolls, worth at least $500, and it holds 10,500 square feet of foil: about 7,000 half-pan covers or 3,200 sheet-pan liners. For a single restaurant that is many months of supply, and holding it ties up cash and shelf space. For a caterer, a commissary kitchen or a food producer using a roll or more a week, it is about a month and a half.

If you use less than about one roll a month, a general catering wholesaler is the better fit, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a year of foil.

Weight and storage

Each roll weighs about 7.6 kg (16.7 lb) in its cutter box, so seven rolls is over 50 kg. Store the boxes flat and off the floor, away from damp: foil does not rot, but a wet cardboard box falls apart and the cutter edge goes with it. Keep the roll in its box until it is needed, because a loose roll dents on the edge and then unrolls unevenly.

Foil is one of several consumables

An operation that goes through foil by the roll is usually also buying bin liners and wrapping pallets. Our guide to how many trash bags a facility uses walks through the same sum for liners, and the foil weight guide covers whether 80 gauge is the right grade for the jobs you do.