Food cost calculator for UK kitchens
To work out food cost, divide each ingredient's pack price by its pack size, multiply by the amount the recipe uses, add the lines up and divide by the portions; food cost % is that cost per portion ÷ the ex-VAT selling price. This free calculator does the arithmetic in your browser: enter pack prices and quantities and it returns batch cost, cost per portion, food-cost percentage and a suggested menu price, with no sign-up.
Scan an invoice — 5 pages free
Photograph a supplier invoice or receipt and PrepSheet reads the line prices for you. Review every line before anything is applied to your recipes. First 5 pages free per account, then £5 for 50 pages.
Scan an invoice →| Ingredient | Pack price (£) | Pack size | Used in recipe | Unit | Cost |
|---|
Tip: enter the pack you buy (e.g. price £8.50 for a 1000 g pack) and how much the recipe uses (e.g. 250 g). Keep pack size and amount used in the same unit. Trimming or cooking loss? Calculate usable yield first.
Rule of thumb: many kitchens aim for ~30% food cost (≈70% GP). Drinks and sides usually run lower; premium proteins higher.
Labour per dish (optional: what the prep and cooking time costs per portion)
On-cost is what you pay on top of the wage: employer National Insurance (15% above £96 a week), holiday pay (12.07% of pay, the statutory 5.6 weeks) and the 3% workplace pension. hours a week at this rate.
(food + labour)
Prime cost is food plus labour. 61% is a rough starting point taken from the UKHospitality × Christie & Co Benchmarking Report 2022: food cost 33% of net food sales plus payroll 28.3% of turnover. The two use slightly different bases and that payroll figure covers every member of staff, not just the kitchen, so set your own. Figures exclude VAT.
How the food cost calculator works
Ingredient cost = pack price ÷ pack quantity × quantity used, after first expressing both quantities in the same unit. For a 2 kg pack and 500 g used, enter pack size 2000, used 500, unit g. Batch cost is the sum of every ingredient; cost per portion is batch cost ÷ yield. For example, a £10.45 recipe making four portions costs £2.6125 raw per portion (display rounding happens only at the end). Sample prices are illustrative.
Enter a selling price in the results panel to inspect food-cost % and GP. Target-price controls are planning calculations, not net profit: VAT, labour, packaging, overhead and waste are not included. For reverse pricing and both GP directions, use the dedicated menu-pricing guide and GP/menu price calculator.
Use /prepsheet to save, scale and print recipes; /yield-calculator for AP-to-EP loss; this calculator for ingredient-led recipe costing; and the food-cost template to save and compare a whole menu.
Run a blog, a course page or a supplier site? Put a free food cost calculator on your own website with one copy-paste snippet. For single jobs there is a recipe cost calculator, a menu price calculator, a cake pricing calculator and a recipe scaler.
Worked example: the ragù already loaded above
The calculator opens with three lines of a beef ragù, so you can see how it reads before you clear it:
| Ingredient | Pack price | Pack size | Used | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beef mince | £6.50 | 500 g | 500 g | £6.50 |
| Tinned tomatoes | £0.95 | 400 g | 800 g | £1.90 |
| Onion | £0.20 | 1 each | 1 | £0.20 |
| Batch, 4 portions | £8.60 |
- Cost per portion: £8.60 ÷ 4 = £2.15.
- Suggested price at the default 30% food cost: £2.15 ÷ 0.30 = £7.17 ex-VAT, or £8.60 with 20% VAT added.
- Checking a real price: a £9.00 menu price is £7.50 ex-VAT (£9.00 ÷ 1.2). Enter 7.50 in the sell-price box and it reads about 29% food cost, 71% GP and £5.35 profit a plate.
Type 9.00 instead and it shows 24%: about five points better than the truth, because the VAT is being counted as yours. Add the garlic (£0.15), red wine (£1.40) and olive oil (£0.30) from the full recipe and the batch becomes £10.45, or £2.61 a portion: three small lines added 46p to every plate.
Four mistakes that make a costing wrong
- Mixing units: a 2 kg pack entered as 2 with 500 used makes the line 1,000 times too dear. Enter 2000 and 500.
- Costing the bought weight: after trim and cooking loss a kilo bought is not a kilo served. Cost the usable weight; the yield calculator measures it, and the ingredient yield chart has typical figures for 28 common ingredients.
- Using the VAT-inclusive price: divide a standard-rated menu price by 1.2 first.
- Old prices: when a supplier price moves, recost every dish that uses it.
To keep a costing on file, use the free recipe and menu costing template (Excel or Google Sheets); the free stock take template shows what your food actually cost over a week.
Want to save and scale your recipes?
The free PrepSheet recipe tool saves every recipe and scales it to any batch with a printable prep sheet. For measured trim and cooking loss before you cost the dish, use the AP-to-EP yield calculator. Try it now, no signup. When you want your recipes on every device, add a free account: email, magic link, no password. Type a new pack price and it lists every dish whose cost moved.
How to cost a dish (quick guide)
1. Cost every ingredient. For each one, take the price of the pack you buy and the pack size, then enter how much the recipe uses. PrepSheet works out the proportional cost.
2. Divide by portions. Total recipe cost ÷ portions = your true cost per plate.
3. Set your price from a target. Food cost % = ingredient cost ÷ sell price. To hit 30% food cost, price = cost ÷ 0.30. Gross profit % is the mirror image (GP% = 100 − food cost %).
4. Don't forget: this is food cost only. Labour, rent, packaging, waste and VAT come on top. That is why a healthy food cost % matters. Add a few % to ingredient costs to cover trim and waste.
Want to see the whole chain on a real dish first? What a £14 burger actually makes walks one gastropub burger from the menu price to what is left: the worked example behind The Pass.
Food cost & menu pricing FAQ
How do you calculate food cost percentage?
Food cost % = ingredient cost ÷ selling price × 100. If a dish costs £3.00 in ingredients and sells for £10, that's a 30% food cost (and a 70% gross profit). Enter your ingredients above and the calculator works it out for you.
What is a good food cost percentage in the UK?
Most UK kitchens aim for a food cost of roughly 30-35%, a gross profit of about 65-70% on the ex-VAT price. That is what the UK trade data actually shows: measured food gross margins across pubs, casual dining and food-led sites sit in the mid-to-high 60s, not the 75% you will see quoted online. Treat it as a target, not a rule. Your rent, labour and waste decide what you actually need.
How do I work out gross profit (GP) on a dish?
Gross profit = selling price − ingredient cost, and GP % = gross profit ÷ selling price × 100. It's the mirror of food cost %: GP % = 100 − food cost %. So a 30% food cost is a 70% GP.
Does this include VAT?
No. These figures are ingredient (food) cost only and exclude VAT. In the UK most restaurant food sales carry 20% VAT, so your menu price has to cover VAT, labour, rent and waste on top of food cost. Price from your target GP first, then add VAT to the menu price.
What's the difference between markup and margin?
Margin (gross profit %) is profit as a share of the selling price; markup is profit as a share of the cost. A dish marked up 100% (cost £3 → price £6) is only a 50% margin, not 100%. Menu pricing works in margin/GP %, which is what this calculator uses.
What should I enter as the sell price?
The menu price without VAT. For standard-rated food, divide the menu price by 1.2: £12.00 on the menu is £10.00 ex-VAT. Entering the VAT-inclusive price makes every dish look more profitable than it is.
Is there a free food cost program for a whole menu?
This calculator costs one dish at a time. The free PrepSheet recipe tool saves every recipe, the free recipe and menu costing template does the same sums in Excel or Google Sheets, and the £11.99 Food Cost & Menu Pricing template puts a whole menu side by side and flags the weak margins.
Can I include labour in the cost of a dish?
Yes. Open Labour per dish under the results and enter the hourly rate, the prep and cooking minutes for the batch and how many portions it makes. The calculator adds the on-cost (employer National Insurance, holiday pay and pension), shows labour per portion and your prime cost (food plus labour) as a percentage of the price, and can set the suggested price to cover both. For a whole week's staffing, use the free labour cost calculator.
Is the calculator free?
Yes. It is completely free, with no signup and nothing to install. Calculations and saved costing values remain in browser storage; page-view and funnel metadata are covered by the privacy page. If you want to save and reuse costings, there is an £11.99 spreadsheet template in the shop.
Calculations and saved costing values remain in browser storage. Page-view and funnel metadata, plus the Pinterest tag, are covered by the privacy page. Want recipes on every device? Use the recipe book.