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Businessfood

Restaurant Food Cost Calculator

Food cost percentage from stock movements. Using purchases instead of food actually used is the standard error, and it makes a month with a stock build look far worse than it was.

Also called: food cost percentage, restaurant cost of goods.

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Food cost percentage
26.03%

26.03% food cost: ₹8,85,000 of food against 34,00,000 of sales. That is at or below the usual target range. Each point of food cost is ₹34,000 in this period.

Cost of food used
₹8,85,000
Gross profit
₹25,15,000
Gross margin
73.97%
Value of one percentage point
₹34,000
Food cost at a 30% target
₹10,20,000
Against the benchmark
That is at or below the usual target range.
How this is calculated
Method and background

How this is calculated

Food used is opening stock plus purchases less closing stock, with staff meals and comps taken out because they did not generate sales. Using purchases alone measures buying rather than consumption, so a delivery arriving on the last day of the month distorts the figure entirely. Twenty-eight to thirty-five percent is the usual target range, and each point is worth showing in money because a point sounds small and is not.

food used is a stock movement, not the purchase figure
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Inventory

Worked examples

Each of these is asserted on every build. If a change to the engine ever moved one of these answers, the build would fail before the page could print it.

a month of trading

Opening inventory
₹3,20,000
Purchases in the period
₹8,90,000
Closing inventory
₹2,80,000
Food sales in the period
₹34,00,000
Staff meals and comps at cost
₹45,000

Food cost percentage26.03%

3.2L + 8.9L - 2.8L - 45k

Open this example

no stock movement makes purchases the cost

Opening inventory
₹3,00,000
Purchases in the period
₹8,90,000
Closing inventory
₹3,00,000
Food sales in the period
₹34,00,000
Staff meals and comps at cost
₹0

Food cost percentage26.18%

boundary

Open this example

Method and limits

What it assumes

  • Accurate stock counts at both ends, which is where the number usually goes wrong.

What it deliberately does not model

  • Waste, theft and portion drift all appear inside this figure without being separable.
  • Beverage cost should be tracked separately, since its percentage is far lower.

Formula version 1.0.0 · definition 1.0.0 · India · Report a problem with this calculator

Frequently asked questions

What food cost should I run at?
Typically 28 to 35 percent, lower for pizza and pasta, higher for steak and seafood. What matters more is whether it is stable month to month.