Food cost percentage is the number that tells you whether your menu makes money. It's simple to calculate, easy to ignore, and quietly decisive: a few points in the wrong direction can wipe out a venue's profit. Here's how to calculate food cost percentage, what to aim for, and how to bring it back under control.
Quick answer
Food cost percentage = cost of ingredients ÷ selling price × 100. Per dish, most restaurants aim for roughly 28–35%, though it varies by venue type. Over a period, use cost of goods sold ÷ food sales. If your number is creeping up, the usual causes are rising supplier prices, portion drift, waste or under-pricing. (Shortcut: our free food cost calculator does the maths.)
The two ways to measure it
Per dish (plate cost): add up the cost of every ingredient in a dish, then divide by its menu price.
Over a period: food cost % = cost of goods sold ÷ food sales × 100, where COGS = opening stock + purchases − closing stock. The period figure is your reality check; the per-dish figure tells you which items are helping or hurting.
A worked example
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Ingredient cost of a burger | £3.20 |
| Menu price (ex VAT) | £10.00 |
| Food cost percentage | 32% (3.20 ÷ 10.00) |
| Gross profit on the dish | £6.80 (68%) |
At 32%, this burger is right in the typical range. If the mince price rises and the plate cost hits £3.80, your food cost jumps to 38% and £0.60 of profit vanishes per burger — across hundreds of covers, that's real money. That's the early-warning value of tracking it.
What's a "good" food cost percentage?
There's no universal target — it depends on your model. A wet-led pub, a high-end restaurant and a pizza takeaway will sit in different places. As a rule of thumb many venues aim for the 28–35% band on food, but a low percentage isn't automatically "better": a dish with a higher food cost but a big cash margin and high volume can be more profitable than a "cheap" one nobody orders. Look at cash profit and percentage together.
How to bring it down
- Re-cost regularly. Supplier prices move; recipes that were 30% last year may be 36% now.
- Control portions. Standard recipes and measured portions stop silent margin leaks (see stock control).
- Cut waste. Spoilage and over-prep go straight onto your food cost (see reducing food waste).
- Re-price or re-engineer. Adjust prices, tweak recipes, or push higher-margin dishes (see menu pricing).
How VoiceMenu helps
When your till, menu and stock are one system, you can see plate costs and sales together and catch drift early. VoiceMenu ties ingredient usage to real sales and surfaces the trends in your monthly business insights. See the restaurant plans or the Stock add-on.
Sources
- Food cost percentage formulas (plate cost and COGS ÷ sales) are standard hospitality accounting; the ~28–35% benchmark is a widely used rule of thumb that varies by venue type.
- UK restaurant margin context — see our commission-free ordering guide and ICAEW hospitality resources.
