Food Cost Calculator

Food cost for the whole kitchen

Use this when you have inventory counts, not a single recipe. Cost of food = beginning inventory + purchases − ending inventory. Then divide by food sales.

How do I calculate the cost of food?

There are two food costs. One is the plate in front of a guest. The other is the kitchen for a week or a month. They use different inputs, and mixing them is how menus get priced on a guess.

Count only what the recipe uses. A $8.99 bag of chicken is not an $8.99 plate if you cook 600 grams of a 1 kg bag. Oil, butter, and garlic belong on the list too — they are the lines people skip, and they move the percentage.

Food cost is ingredients. It does not include labor, rent, packaging, or delivery fees. Those sit on top. A 30% food cost can still lose money if the kitchen spends as much again on wages.

How to calculate food cost with an example?

Chicken Alfredo, 4 servings, menu price $16. Each line is the portion of the package the recipe actually uses. The calculator above is filled with these numbers.

Cost per serving is $10.83 ÷ 4 = $2.71. At a $16 menu price, food cost is $2.71 ÷ $16 = 16.9%. Gross profit on ingredients is $16 − $2.71 = $13.29 before labor and overhead.

Chicken is about half the plate cost. If that price jumps, the percentage moves with it. Pasta barely does.

How do you calculate 30% food cost?

Divide the plate cost by 0.30. That is the menu price where ingredients are exactly 30% of what the guest pays.

$9.03 is the lowest price that still hits 30%, not a price you must charge. Sell higher and the percentage falls. Sell the Alfredo at $16 and food cost is 16.9%. Sell it at $8 and food cost is 33.8%, which is over a 30% target.

What does the same plate look like at different menu prices?

The ingredient cost stays $2.71. Only the price on the menu moves the percentage and the profit left after food.

$9.03 is the 30% line. Every dollar above it lowers food cost and raises what is left after ingredients. That leftover still has to cover wages, rent, packaging, and tax. A 16.9% food cost can lose money if the cook spends 20 minutes on the plate.

What is a good food cost percentage?

Most full-service kitchens aim for 28–35%. The right number depends on how the place makes money. A tasting menu can sit lower because the check is high. A bakery can look fine on ingredients and still undercharge once decorating time is counted. These are working targets operators use, not a legal limit.

Compare dishes to each other, then compare the month to this table. One Alfredo at 16.9% does not mean the kitchen is at 16.9%.

How do I calculate cost per serving?

Add every ingredient line, then divide by how many portions the recipe makes. For the Alfredo, $10.83 ÷ 4 servings = $2.71. Leave servings at 1 when you want the cost of the whole tray, batch, or cake. A cookie recipe that yields 24 uses 24, and the result is the cost of one cookie, not the cost of the dough.

Use the portion you actually plate. If the card says 150 g of chicken and the line cook serves 200 g, the calculator is right and the pass is wrong. Weigh a few plates before you trust the percentage.

Does food cost include labor and overhead?

Food cost is what you paid for ingredients that left the kitchen in a dish, or that were wasted and thrown out. It leaves out wages, payroll tax, rent, gas, electricity, boxes, napkins, and delivery fees.

Restaurants keep those separate on purpose. Food cost shows whether the menu price covers the plate. Prime cost is the next number: food plus labor, often talked about around 60–65% of sales in a full-service kitchen. A plate at 30% food cost and 35% labor is a 65% prime cost before rent.

Home bakers often fold labor in because their own time is the real cost. Hours × hourly rate, plus a few dollars a batch for boxes and power, then a markup on that total. That selling price is a markup on cost. It is a different formula from restaurant food cost %, which divides plate cost by 0.30 to find the 30% menu price.

What if food cost is above 40%?

Start with the most expensive line, not the whole recipe. On this Alfredo, chicken is about half the plate. A higher chicken price, or a heavier portion, moves the percentage more than pasta ever will. Then check three things:

• Raise the menu price toward the target shown in the calculator. At $2.71 a plate, 30% starts at $9.03.
• Shrink the portion of the costly ingredient, or swap a cut that costs less per kilo and still fits the dish.
• Recount waste. Trim, burnt ends, and the oil you fry in belong on the card if the guest’s plate caused them.

A low percentage needs the same check from the other side. Under 20% sometimes means the guest is paying a lot for a small plate. Sometimes it means parmesan, butter, or a side was never entered. Add the missing line before you cut the menu price.

How does unit conversion work?

Buy in kilograms and type the recipe in grams. Buy a 500 ml bottle and type the recipe in tablespoons. The calculator converts inside one family:

• Weight: g, kg, oz, lb
• Volume: ml, L, tsp, tbsp, cup
• Count: each, such as 4 cloves from a 10-clove bulb

Olive oil in the example is 1 tbsp from a 500 ml bottle at $8.99. One tablespoon is 14.8 ml, so the plate uses 14.8 ÷ 500 × $8.99 = $0.27. A cup of flour is not turned into grams, because a cup of flour and a cup of sugar weigh different amounts. If the amount and the package are different kinds of units, that line is left out and the total is marked so you can fix it.

The currency menu only changes the symbol. Type prices in the money you actually paid. $8.99 and €8.99 are not converted.

How do I calculate food cost for the whole month?

Count what was in the walk-in at the start, add what you bought, and subtract what is still there at the end. That is the food you used. Divide by food sales, not by total sales if the bar is on the same check.

That 31.9% is the kitchen for the period. The Alfredo at 16.9% can sit inside it. So can a special that runs at 45% and pulls the month up. Cost the plate when you write the menu. Cost the month when you close the books. The second calculator on this page runs that inventory formula.

If ending inventory is larger than the start plus purchases, a count is wrong. Food you used cannot be a negative number.

Is there a free app that can calculate food costs?

This page is a free food cost calculator in the browser. Open it on a phone or a laptop, enter package prices, and read cost per serving and food cost percentage. No download and no account. It is not a separate app-store install, and it does not track invoices or inventory for you — you type the numbers from the receipt and the recipe card.

For calories on the same recipe, use the recipe calorie calculator. For what a household should spend on groceries in a week, use the grocery budget calculator.