Food Cost per Serving
Free Food Cost per Serving calculator with clear step-by-step results.
About Food Cost per Serving
Cost per serving is the batch cost divided by the portions it actually yields — and the yield is where recipe costing goes wrong. Trim, peel, spoilage and generous plating mean the food that reaches customers costs more per portion than the invoice suggests, so a waste uplift belongs in the numerator. Dividing the loaded portion cost by a target food cost percentage gives the menu price that hits that target: at 30%, a $5.97 portion needs to sell for $19.90.
Formulas
Cost per serving
Cost per serving = batch cost × (1 + waste) ÷ servings
Menu price
Price = cost per serving ÷ target food cost percentage
Worked example
With the default values below, Food Cost per Serving returns Food Cost per Serving of $5.95. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Total ingredient cost for the batchminimum 0 $
- 42.5 $
- Servings the batch yieldsminimum 1
- 8
- Trim, spoilage and over-portioningaccepts 0–60 %
- 12 %
- Target food cost percentageaccepts 5–90 %
- 30 %
Results
- Food Cost per Serving
- $5.95
- Batch Cost Including Waste
- $47.60
- Menu Price at Target Food Cost
- $19.83
- Gross Margin per Serving
- $13.88
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Cost per serving
- 3Menu price
- 4Food Cost per Serving= $5.95
- 5Batch Cost Including Waste= $47.60
- 6Menu Price at Target Food Cost= $19.83
- 7Gross Margin per Serving= $13.88
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
- Ingredient prices, yields and target margins vary by supplier, season and market. Recost recipes regularly and confirm any pricing decision against your own trading figures.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Ingredient prices, yields and target margins vary by supplier, season and market. Recost recipes regularly and confirm any pricing decision against your own trading figures.
Frequently Asked Questions
What food cost percentage should I target?
25-35% is typical for full-service restaurants, lower for beverages and higher for steak or seafood-led menus. It is a target for the menu as a whole, so individual dishes can sit either side of it.
Why divide by the percentage instead of adding a markup?
Because food cost percentage is defined as cost ÷ price. Rearranging gives price = cost ÷ percentage. Adding a 70% markup to cost gives a different, lower price and misses the target.
Does gross margin here cover my other costs?
No. Gross margin per serving is what is left after ingredients only — labour, rent, utilities and waste disposal all come out of it before profit.