Food Cost Percentage
Find the food cost percentage and profit on a menu item.
About Food Cost Percentage
Food cost percentage divides the cost of ingredients by the menu price, a core metric for restaurant profitability. Keeping food cost in a target band helps pricing that stays profitable while remaining appealing to customers.
Formula
Food Cost Percentage
Food cost = ingredient cost / menu price x 100
- food cost
- Ingredient cost as a share of the selling price
Worked example
With the default values below, Food Cost Percentage returns Food Cost of 40.0%. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Ingredient cost
- 8
- Menu price
- 20
Results
- Food Cost
- 40.0%
- Gross Profit
- $12.00
- Profit Margin
- 60.0%
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Food Cost Percentage
- 3Food Cost= 40.0
- 4Gross Profit= 12.00
- 5Profit Margin= 60.0
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 2 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.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Food Cost Percentage calculated?
Food cost = ingredient cost / menu price x 100 Food cost percentage divides the cost of ingredients by the menu price, a core metric for restaurant profitability.
Why does Food Cost Percentage matter?
Keeping food cost in a target band helps pricing that stays profitable while remaining appealing to customers.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 2 inputs: Ingredient cost, Menu price. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.