How to Calculate Food Cost Percentage (Formula + Example)

To calculate food cost percentage, divide your cost of goods sold by your food sales and multiply by 100: Food Cost % = (COGS ÷ Food Sales) × 100. Example: a café with €5,800 in food costs and €18,000 in food sales runs at 5,800 ÷ 18,000 × 100 = 32.2%.

That one number tells you how much of every euro you take in goes straight back out the door as ingredients. Most owners guess it. The ones who actually calculate it, and check it weekly, catch a creeping margin problem inside the same trading week, while they can still fix it. Below is the full formula, a worked example you can copy, honest benchmarks by concept, and what to do once you have the number.

This post is part of our broader guide to restaurant food cost.

The food cost percentage formula

The food cost percentage formula has two parts: the percentage itself, and the COGS figure that feeds it.

Food Cost % = (COGS ÷ Food Sales) × 100

To get COGS (cost of goods sold) for a period, you don't just add up your invoices. You account for what was already in the building and what's left at the end:

COGS = Opening stock + Purchases − Closing stock

Opening stock is the value of the food in your fridges and store cupboards at the start of the week. Purchases is everything you bought from suppliers during the week. Closing stock is what's still on the shelf when the week ends. The difference is what you actually used, which is what your dishes actually cost you, not just what you happened to pay invoices for.

How to calculate food cost percentage — a worked example

Here is the full calculation, step by step, for one trading week.

A café does €18,000 in food sales this week. To find COGS:

• Opening stock: €4,000
• Purchases: €6,200
• Closing stock: €4,400
• COGS = 4,000 + 6,200 − 4,400 = €5,800

Now the percentage:

Food Cost % = 5,800 ÷ 18,000 × 100 = 32.2%

That café is sitting right on the industry average. Nothing's on fire, but there's also no slack: a supplier nudging one core ingredient up 8% would quietly push this past 34% without anyone noticing on the register.

Per-plate vs overall food cost

There are two ways to calculate food cost, and you need both. The overall figure above tells you the health of the whole kitchen. The per-plate figure tells you which specific dish is the problem.

For a single dish, the formula drops the stock counts and uses the recipe instead:

Per-plate food cost % = (plate ingredient cost ÷ menu price) × 100

Take a burger. The ingredients (bun, patty, cheese, sauce, a few rings of onion) cost €3.50, and it sells for €11.00:

3.50 ÷ 11.00 × 100 = 31.8%

The overall number tells you the kitchen is healthy at 32.2%. The per-plate number tells you the burger is pulling its weight at 31.8%. Run that same calculation across your menu and you'll usually find one or two dishes dragging the average up while a couple of quiet ones carry it. Working out the cost per recipe is its own discipline, sometimes called recipe and menu costing, and it's where most of the margin hides.

What's a good food cost percentage? (benchmarks by concept)

A good food cost percentage sits between 28% and 35% for most restaurants, but the right target depends on your concept, so don't chase a single magic number.

A fine-dining kitchen running at 38% isn't necessarily in trouble, because the menu prices carry it. A QSR at 38% almost certainly is. The number only means something next to your concept and your prices. For more on where your target should land, see what is a good food cost percentage.

Why the number alone isn't enough

The formula is the easy part. The real failure mode is calculating it too late.

If you work out food cost once a month, on a Sunday night, in a spreadsheet, you find out you hit 35% three weeks after it started happening. By then a supplier price rise has been eating your margin for the better part of a month and you've already paid for it. Owners who calculate food cost weekly catch the same problem inside the trading week, while there's still time to change a supplier, re-portion a dish, or nudge a price. Monthly is fine for benchmarking against the table above. Weekly is what actually protects the margin.

And food cost is only half the picture. Food and labour together (your "prime cost") typically run 55–65% of revenue, and that combined number is the one that really tells you whether the business is healthy.

How to lower a food cost that's too high

If your food cost percentage is running high, there are four concrete levers, in rough order of how fast they move the number.

1. Re-price the worst offenders. Find the high-percentage dishes from your per-plate calculation. A best-seller running at 42% is bleeding you on volume. Raising it 50 cents can drop two or three points off your overall food cost on its own.
2. Check your portions. Food cost creep is often just bigger plates than the recipe specifies. Re-weigh the proteins and the high-cost ingredients against the costed recipe.
3. Catch supplier price increases. This is the silent one. A supplier raises the price of a core ingredient by a few percent, your invoices look normal, and your food cost drifts up before you ever notice. Spotting these early is its own job, which we cover in tracking supplier price increases.
4. Fix your menu mix. Push the high-margin dishes, not just the popular ones. Sometimes the cheapest fix isn't changing a recipe, it's selling more of the dish that already earns well.

The COGS side of all this deserves its own walkthrough, which you'll find in how to calculate COGS for a restaurant.

FAQ

What is a good food cost percentage?

A good food cost percentage is between 28% and 35% for most restaurants. Fine dining runs higher (~30–40%) because premium prices offset the ingredient cost, casual and QSR sit lower (~25–30%), and bar or beverage COGS is typically 18–24%. The 2026 full-service average is around 32.4% (NRA 2026 — verify before publishing).

What is the food cost formula?

The food cost formula is (COGS ÷ Food Sales) × 100, where COGS = Opening stock + Purchases − Closing stock. For a single dish, use (plate ingredient cost ÷ menu price) × 100.

How often should I calculate food cost?

Calculate it weekly. Weekly tracking catches a problem (a price rise, a portion that's crept up) inside the same trading period, while you can still fix it. Monthly is only useful for benchmarking against industry averages, by which point a bad week has already cost you.

Food cost vs gross profit — what's the difference?

Food cost percentage is the share of sales spent on ingredients. Gross profit is the rest: what's left after food cost, before labour and overheads. If your food cost is 32%, your gross profit on food is roughly 68%. They're two sides of the same calculation.

How do I lower a high food cost percentage?

Re-price the high-percentage best-sellers, tighten your portions against the costed recipe, catch supplier price increases early, and shift your menu mix toward higher-margin dishes. Re-pricing the worst offenders usually moves the overall number fastest.

Stop calculating this by hand

The formula's simple. Doing it every week — pulling invoices, updating cost prices, recalculating per dish — is the part nobody keeps up. Klar reads your supplier invoices and your POS sales, so it knows your real cost prices and your real food sales, and keeps your food cost percentage live, per dish and overall. When it moves, Klar tells you why: a supplier quietly raised a price, or a dish is underpriced. You see it the day it happens, not at month-end.

Klar is opening to launching partners now — join the waitlist at klar.works.