What food cost is
Food cost is the share of ingredient cost in revenue. It is calculated for a single dish, for a menu category and for the whole venue over a period.
Example: a dish sells for 3,000 ₸ and its ingredients cost 900 ₸. Food cost of the dish is 900 ÷ 3,000 × 100% = 30%.
Planned versus actual food cost
Planned food cost comes from recipe cards: how much product should have gone into the dishes sold. Actual food cost comes from stock: opening stock plus purchases minus closing stock.
The gap between them is the kitchen's loss. If recipe cards say 30% and stock says 34%, four percent of revenue went past the recipe.
What a normal food cost looks like
There is no single norm; the figure depends on the format and pricing. Restaurateurs most often aim for these ranges:
| Format | Food cost benchmark |
|---|---|
| Fast food, street food | 25-30% |
| Cafes and mid-range restaurants | 28-35% |
| Steakhouses, seafood | 35-40% |
| Bar, drinks | 18-25% |
What matters more than matching someone else's norm is keeping the gap between planned and actual food cost within 1-2 percentage points.
Why actual food cost runs above planned
- Portioning “by eye”: the cook adds more than the recipe card says
- Outdated recipe cards: the recipe changed, the card did not
- Write-offs and spoilage from poor storage and rotation
- Receiving errors: short weight from suppliers, substitutions
- Staff meals and comps that are not recorded
- Theft of products and finished dishes
- Rising purchase prices without repricing the menu
In a chain the first reason usually dominates: the same dish is assembled differently in different locations, and across the chain's turnover the extra grams turn into real money.
How to reduce food cost
- Update recipe cards and recalculate cost at current purchase prices
- Put scales and measuring tools on every station
- Count key items weekly instead of the whole stock monthly
- Keep a write-off log with reasons
- Review the menu: drop dishes with high food cost and low sales
- Control how dishes are assembled, not only the stock result
Questions and answers
How do I calculate the food cost of a dish
Add up the cost of all ingredients on the recipe card including processing losses, divide by the menu price and multiply by 100%.
What is a good food cost
For most cafes and restaurants the benchmark is 28-35%. More important is that actual food cost from stock differs from the planned one by no more than 1-2 percentage points.
How often should food cost be calculated
Recalculate the planned figure whenever purchase prices or recipes change. Actual food cost is convenient to check weekly for key products and monthly for the whole stock.
Can a camera help reduce food cost
Yes. A camera with video analytics checks the ingredients and their count in every dish. Exact grams come from the camera paired with scales at the station.