Food cost calculator for catering
A restaurant calculator costs one dish from the menu. This one costs mass production: ingredients with processing loss, overproduction, packaging, labour and delivery spread over the batch — and finally food cost and a price that defends your margin.
We cost one menu item for one production day. Purchase prices and losses come from your invoices and your own measurements — the tool does not verify them and does not replace accounting.
Portion weight, purchase price from the invoice and processing loss. Loss covers peelings, thawing and cooking shrink — the tool converts it into the quantity you actually buy.
Millilitres are counted as 1 ml ≈ 1 g. Price pieces per piece only.
- Ingredients per portion —
- With waste and overproduction —
- Ingredients per batch —
How we cost food in mass production
Every ingredient runs through the same formula: portion weight ÷ (1 − loss) × unit price. Potatoes with 25% loss are not 200 g per portion but 267 g on the invoice. Restaurant calculators usually skip this step, and food cost comes out too optimistic.
The ingredient total is multiplied by overproduction, because food that never left the kitchen was still bought. Then comes packaging per portion, plus labour and delivery spread over the batch. The full portion cost is the sum of those four lines.
Price comes from margin on the net price: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). At a cost of 8.78 PLN and a 25% margin that is 11.70 PLN net, and with 8% VAT — 12.64 PLN gross. Food cost is food divided by the net price, the classic 25–35% in mass catering.
This is the costing of one menu item, not a company P&L. Fixed kitchen costs — rent, admin, depreciation — are not here. For a whole contract there is a separate profitability calculator.
Why catering cannot use a restaurant food cost calculator
Processing loss shifts the result by double digits
A restaurant costs the plate on the menu and stops there. A mass kitchen buys vegetables by the crate: peelings, sizing, thawing and cooking shrink are a real cost. Potatoes 25%, carrots 20%, cabbage 15% — added up, that can raise the ingredient cost by more than ten percent, and that is exactly the gap that quietly eats the margin.
Labour and delivery are batch costs, not portion costs
Six kitchen hours cost the same at 50 and at 200 portions. At 50 that is almost 8 PLN per portion, at 200 — under 2 PLN. That is why a small facility at the end of a route can be unprofitable at the same set price with an identical recipe.
The same table shows the other side: at 500 portions the cost per portion drops below 6 PLN, but if you cut the price down to cost plus margin, food cost passes 45%. High volume is not a reason to give up price — it is a reason to earn more per batch at the same price.
Overproduction is part of food cost
If you cook 6% above issue, the raw cost of a sold portion rises by 6% — not by zero. Restaurant calculators do not see this, because there the surplus goes out as another order. In preschool catering it comes back as returns or goes into the bin.
Margin is not markup
A 25% markup on a cost of 8.78 PLN gives 10.98 PLN and a 20% margin. A 25% margin on the price gives 11.70 PLN. Across 20,000 portions a month that gap is worth over ten thousand złoty. Here we take margin on the net price, because that is the figure compared in tenders.
Food cost in catering: common questions
Divide the food cost per portion by the net selling price and multiply by 100. Food cost is the sum of ingredients converted through processing loss, increased by overproduction. At 3.74 PLN of food and a net price of 11.70 PLN, food cost is 32%.
Usually 25–35% of the net price. Going lower is hard with children's portion sizes; going higher and the margin stops covering labour and delivery. What matters is what is left after packaging, labour and the route — food cost alone does not yet tell you whether you earn.
It applies processing loss to each ingredient separately, adds overproduction, spreads labour and delivery over the batch, and shows the result for 50, 100, 200 and 500 portions. Restaurant tools cost a single menu dish at a single scale.
From your own measurements: weigh the product before and after preparation. If you do not measure, start from typical values — potatoes around 25%, carrots 20%, cabbage 15%, meat 5–10% for thawing and trimming. Enter zero if the recipe weight is already the purchase weight.
Because labour and delivery are entered as batch costs and spread over more portions. Food and packaging stay the same per portion. If a larger run means an extra shift or a second trip, correct the hours and the delivery cost — then the table tells the truth.
No. Food cost is calculated on the net price. VAT is here only to show the gross price the facility or parent sees. Catering with delivery is usually 8% in Poland, but confirm the rate with your accountant.
A costing is only as good as the portion count.
Dietido takes the daily portion count from facility orders, watches diets and allergens, and builds production from what is actually issued — instead of a recipe from six months ago.
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