How to Calculate Food Cost Percentage (With a Worked Example)

August 10, 2026 · 4 min read

To calculate food cost percentage, divide the plate cost of a dish by its menu price and multiply by 100. A burger costing $4.20 to make and selling for $15.00 has a 28% food cost. For a whole period, use opening inventory plus purchases minus closing inventory, divided by food sales.

There are two food cost percentages, and most confusion about the number comes from mixing them up. One describes a single dish. The other describes a week. You need both, and the gap between them is where the money is.

The dish-level formula

Plate-level food cost

Food cost % = Plate cost ÷ Menu price × 100

Two numbers in, one out — the food cost percentage calculator also returns the price that would hit your target.

Plate cost is everything that leaves the kitchen on that plate: protein, starch, vegetable, sauce, garnish, and the side the menu promised. Here is a real one, built line by line.

Worked example · House burger with fries

Beef patty, 6 oz at $6.27/lb EP: $2.35
Brioche bun: $0.48
Cheddar, 1 oz: $0.31
Lettuce, tomato, onion: $0.30
House sauce, 1 oz sub-recipe: $0.12
Pickle spear: $0.07
Fries, 5 oz portion: $0.57
Menu price: $15.00
Food cost percentage: 28.0%

Two things about that list are worth pausing on, because they are where most costings go wrong.

The beef is priced at $6.27/lb, not at the invoice price. The invoice said $5.65/lb. After trim and cook loss the usable yield is 90%, so the real cost of a pound of served beef is higher. That's edible portion cost, and skipping it understates nearly every protein dish on a menu.

The sauce has its own cost per ounce. It was costed once as a sub-recipe — batch cost divided by measured yield — and now flows into every dish that uses it. Guessed at "about ten cents," it would corrupt six dishes at once and none of them visibly.

The period-level formula

Dish-level food cost tells you what a plate should cost. Period food cost tells you what your kitchen actually spent. It comes from inventory, not from recipes:

Period food cost

(Opening inventory + Purchases − Closing inventory) ÷ Food sales × 100

Note that it's purchases adjusted by inventory, not purchases alone. A week where you stocked up will look terrible otherwise.

Worked example · One month at a single-unit café

Inventory on hand, Mar 1: $8,400
Purchases during March: $31,600
Inventory on hand, Mar 31: $7,900
Food used (COGS): $32,100
Food sales, March: $104,000
Period food cost: 30.9%

Using purchases alone you'd report 30.4% — half a point better than reality, because $500 of inventory came off the shelf and was never replaced.

Why the two numbers differ, and what the gap means

If your recipes say 27% and your inventory says 30.7%, that 3.7-point gap is variance: waste, over-portioning, spoilage, comps, receiving errors, and theft. It is real money, it appears on no invoice, and it is usually the most recoverable cost in a restaurant.

Worked example · What 3.7 points is worth

Annual food sales: $1,250,000
Variance: 3.7 percentage points
Annual leakage: $46,250

Closing half of it funds a full-time cook. See ideal vs. actual food cost for how to chase it down.

The four mistakes that make the number wrong

Using invoice prices instead of yield-adjusted prices. A protein at 65% yield costs 54% more per usable pound than the invoice says. This single correction moves most menus by two to four points.
Forgetting the sides. If the entrée comes with fries, the fries are part of the plate cost. They have their own line on the prep list, which is exactly why they get left out of the costing.
Ignoring the small stuff. Oil, butter, seasoning, complimentary bread. Most kitchens add a Q factor of 2–5% of plate cost. A $0.40 bread service at 200 covers a week is $4,160 a year.
Costing once and never again. A recipe costed at menu launch describes supplier prices on that day. Eighteen months of 1.2% increases per delivery cycle is a 24% higher ingredient cost, and nothing about the recipe changed.

How often to recalculate

A workable cadence for a single-unit operator
What	How often	Why
Period food cost	Weekly	Four chances a month to catch a problem instead of one
Top 10 dishes by volume	Monthly	They carry most of your cost exposure
Full menu recost	Quarterly	Catches the slow drift the top 10 don't
Any dish whose main ingredient moved >5%	Immediately	That's the one that just crossed your target

Is food cost percentage the same as COGS?

Closely related. COGS is the dollar cost of goods consumed in a period; food cost percentage is that figure divided by food sales. COGS is the number, food cost percentage is the ratio.

Should beverage be in the same number?

No — track them separately. Beverage costs behave completely differently: spirits run 15–20%, wine 30–40%. Blending them into one food-and-beverage number hides both problems. See pour cost.

What if my food cost percentage is different every week?

Some variation is normal, but wild swings usually mean your inventory count boundaries don't line up with your sales period, or the count itself is inconsistent. Fix the measurement before you act on the number.

Does food cost percentage include labour?

No. Food and labour combined is prime cost, and prime cost is the more useful weekly number because the two trade against each other constantly.

Every dish recosted the day the invoice lands.

Photograph your menu and Marji costs every dish. When a supplier price moves, the affected plates recost automatically and you get told which ones crossed your target — with the invoice line as evidence.

Cost my menu free →