How much to plan per guest: quantities for a waste-free réveillon

It is a familiar scenario: you buy a slightly bigger turkey "just in case," add a tourtière, two salads and a third dessert, and by December 27 the fridge is overflowing with dishes nobody wants to see anymore. Some of it ends up in lunches. The rest, too often, in the garbage.

Yet there are numbers to go by. Quebec's turkey farmers, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Love Food Hate Waste Canada and the Quebec government publish per-person quantities and clear rules on leftovers and donations. Here is how to combine them for a generous réveillon, without the surplus. For the menu, see our guide to traditional Quebec réveillon recipes.

Food waste by the numbers, and what we know about the holidays

Nationally, Love Food Hate Waste Canada estimates that 63% of the food Canadians throw away could have been eaten, and that wasted food costs the average Canadian household more than $1,300 a year. In Quebec, RECYC-QUÉBEC's quantification study puts edible food lost or wasted at 1.2 million tonnes a year, or 16% of everything that enters the food system. The largest share comes from households: 28%, ahead of retail (22%) and processing (21%).

And the holidays? None of the Canadian and Quebec studies consulted measures waste specific to this period. But in Love Food Hate Waste Canada's 2026 National Food Study, conducted with 8,139 adults, 61% of respondents say they sometimes unintentionally prepare too much food, for example because portions do not match the number of people. Leftover meals rank third among the foods households say they waste most often, after fruit and vegetables and bread. The basic habits are in our guide to avoiding food waste at home; here is how to apply them to the réveillon.

How much to plan per guest: the numbers

The guidelines below are for adults; scale down for children. When we found no official guideline, the estimate is clearly marked.

Per-person chart

For side dishes, Love Food Hate Waste Canada measures with your hand: a portion of meat the size of your palm, starches the size of your fist, two cupped hands of vegetables or salad, and the size of your thumb for cheese or dressing. For pasta and rice, which expand when cooked, it gives uncooked amounts.

For cheese, Dairy Farmers of Canada adjusts the amount to when it is served: less after dinner than as an appetizer, and much more when the board is the meal. To choose the cheeses, follow our guide to building a Quebec cheese board for the holidays.

For tourtière, desserts and drinks, we found no official per-guest guideline: hence our estimates, which count servings rather than dishes. For drinks, plan plenty of water and at least one alcohol-free option, such as our hot mulled cider, with or without alcohol.

The real trap is adding everything up. The turkey guidelines assume it is the star of the meal. If you also serve a tourtière, a meatball ragoût and three sides, everyone will eat less of each dish: in that case, aim for the "no leftovers" amount of turkey. That is a common-sense rule, not an official guideline.

Turkey size by number of adults

Le Dindon du Québec turns its rule into whole-turkey sizes. Here is an excerpt:

For four adults or fewer, the chart only offers a 2.7 kg (6 lb) turkey, with leftovers; if you do not want to cook a whole turkey, the same source suggests a turkey breast roast. Good to know: a Utility grade turkey, with an imperfect appearance, tastes the same as a Grade A turkey and costs less per kilo, which makes it perfect if you carve it in the kitchen. Fresh or frozen, thawing: it is all in our guide fresh or frozen turkey: size and thawing.

Planning your réveillon in 4 steps

1. A real guest list. Count adults and children separately, and ask about allergies or vegetarians: a vegetarian tourtière for three people beats a second meat tourtière that nobody will finish. If everyone brings a dish, split up the menu to avoid doubles.

2. Think in servings, not dishes. Start from the chart, multiply by the number of guests, then cut back if the menu has several main dishes. Love Food Hate Waste Canada sums it up in two tips: be realistic about how much food you will really need, and consider buying a slightly smaller turkey.

3. Take stock before you shop. Check what you already have on hand in your cupboards, fridge and freezer, then make a detailed grocery list and stick to it. RECYC-QUÉBEC puts better planning of purchases at the top of its strategies for reducing food waste at home. Add the ingredients for leftover meals right away: bread for sandwiches, vegetables for soup.

4. Cook ahead and make room. Before the holidays, eat or freeze what needs to be used up to make room in the fridge and freezer, and prepare dishes that freeze well ahead of time: our make-ahead holiday freezer calendar tells you what to do and when. On the night itself, eat "family style," as Love Food Hate Waste Canada suggests, and let guests serve themselves: everyone picks their foods and amounts, and less is left on plates.

The leftovers rule: containers, 2 hours and sharing

Planning for leftovers is fine, as long as they have somewhere to go before the first toast. Love Food Hate Waste Canada suggests sharing them with guests in reusable containers: ask guests to bring their own, or have enough on hand so everyone leaves with a share of the feast. And if you are the guest, do not refuse the leftovers: you help your host use up the surplus. Glass jars make excellent take-home containers; our article on reusing glass jars explains how to use them safely.

But watch the clock. Health Canada says to throw out food that stays at room temperature for more than two hours. So divide the leftovers into shallow containers while you clear the table, put them in the fridge so they cool quickly, then hand them out cold when guests leave. For the drive home, Health Canada recommends a cooler with ice or freezer packs. After that, refrigerated leftovers should be eaten within two to three days, or frozen right away. Dish-by-dish storage times are in our article holiday leftovers: how long in the fridge and freezer, and the rules for a meal that drags on are in our guide to the holiday buffet and the 2-hour rule.

At home, the challenge is not forgetting the leftovers. According to Love Food Hate Waste Canada's 2026 study, nearly 85% of respondents enjoy eating leftovers, but 34% say their household wastes food because they forget about them. The fix: plan your post-holiday meals now, soup one night, sandwiches the next. Too much turkey? Freeze it in portions: the organization suggests bringing it out for a second Christmas dinner in February. For ideas, dig into our 7 leftover turkey recipes so nothing goes to waste, and turn the carcass into homemade broth.

Donate or compost: what is allowed, and in what order

RECYC-QUÉBEC ranks food waste solutions in a hierarchy. At the top: not creating a surplus in the first place, known as source reduction. Next come feeding people, then feeding animals, then turning residues into other products. Recycling organic matter, such as composting, comes last. The most effective anti-waste move of the réveillon therefore happens at the grocery store, long before the brown bin.

Donating is the second rung, but not just anything goes. The Quebec government advises against donating table and buffet leftovers that may have been handled by the public, opened perishable foods, and raw meat, fish and seafood. You can donate whole fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs, dairy products, dry goods and commercially canned goods, with some basic information (product name, packing or portioning date, storage instructions), keeping cold during transport anything that needs to be. So the never-opened box of crackers or the extra cans can go to a food assistance organization in your neighbourhood; ask first what it accepts.

That leaves what truly can no longer be eaten: peels, bones, leftovers forgotten for too long. The brown bin or the compost bin beats the garbage, depending on what each one accepts. In Quebec, 47% of edible food lost or wasted still ends up in landfill, versus 23% composted, and barely 2% is recovered and redistributed, according to RECYC-QUÉBEC. To get started, read our guide to composting food scraps.

True or false: 4 myths about quantities and leftovers

"Count on one pound of turkey per guest." True.

That is Le Dindon du Québec's rule: 450 g (1 lb) of whole turkey per person, by purchase weight, when turkey is the main dish. If you want leftovers, go up to 700 g (1.5 lb) per person.

"Better too much than not enough." False.

That reflex is exactly what fills the garbage. In Love Food Hate Waste Canada's 2026 study, 46% of respondents sometimes prepare extra food "just in case," and 61% sometimes unintentionally prepare too much. Planned leftovers are not the problem: 36% of respondents intentionally prepare extra food for future meals most of the time, and Quebec participants do so significantly more often than the sample as a whole. The difference is the plan.

"You can donate réveillon leftovers to a food bank." False.

The Quebec government advises against donating table and buffet leftovers that may have been handled by the public, as well as opened perishable foods, which are considered higher risk. What you can donate is intact surplus; cooked leftovers are better shared with your guests or frozen.

"If it ends up in the compost, it is not really waste." False.

In Love Food Hate Waste Canada's study, 17% of respondents think it is acceptable to waste food as long as it is composted, and 26% are neutral; Quebec participants, however, are significantly less likely to agree. RECYC-QUÉBEC ranks composting last in its hierarchy, and for good reason: 67% of the greenhouse gas emissions of Quebec's food system are linked to food production, while the final destination of residues accounts for only a small share. When a dish ends up in the compost, most of its footprint is therefore already done.

Free gift: get The Quebec Recipe Advent Calendar, 24 recipes ready in 30 minutes or less with local ingredients, one a day until Christmas Eve. The same page gathers all our holiday recipes and guides.

Sources

• On planifie (planning your turkey; in French), Le Dindon du Québec, Les Éleveurs de volailles du Québec, 2024.
• Portion Sizes, Love Food Hate Waste Canada, 2020.
• Holiday Tips (Planning, Serving and Leftovers sections), Love Food Hate Waste Canada, 2018, updated in 2026.
• Love Food Hate Waste Canada's 2026 National Food Study, H. Everitt, FoodMesh, 2026.
• How to make a cheese plate, Dairy Farmers of Canada.
• Étude de quantification des pertes et gaspillage alimentaires au Québec : faits saillants (Quebec food loss and waste study, highlights; in French), RECYC-QUÉBEC, 2022.
• Donner ou recevoir des aliments en toute sécurité (giving or receiving food safely; in French), Gouvernement du Québec, 2025.
• Holiday food safety, Health Canada, 2017.