Recipe Cost per Portion: Allow for Yield, Waste and Portion Size
Calculate recipe cost per portion from the ingredients actually needed to produce saleable servings, allowing for preparation losses and cooking yield. Divide the batch ingredient cost by the usable portions, then add per-serving garnish and packaging. Keep labour and overhead visible before choosing a menu price, and check the portion size during service.
What you’ll get from this guide: Build a measured recipe-cost sheet and see what a larger serving does to the cost per portion.
- Use separate purchased, prepared and cooked quantities.
- Do not count measured yield loss twice.
- Add labour, overhead and selling costs after establishing food cost.
This guide is for cafes, caterers and small food makers costing a repeatable recipe. Take actual supplier prices and weigh a test batch. The example demonstrates cost arithmetic; it does not set food-safety procedures, cooking requirements or recommended portion sizes.
Trace the usable quantity
Suppose a fictional recipe uses 10 kilograms of a main ingredient at $8 per kilogram. Preparation leaves 80% usable weight, and cooking leaves 75% of that prepared weight. The cooked main ingredient is 10 × 0.80 × 0.75 = 6 kilograms.
The purchased ingredient costs $80. Its cost per cooked kilogram is $80 ÷ 6 = $13.33 after rounding. The two yields multiply; you don't add the 20% preparation loss and 25% cooking loss and subtract 45% from the starting weight.
Assumptions: Fictional Australian-dollar management-costing example. Amounts exclude GST that is assumed recoverable; any non-recoverable tax is already included in costs. These assumptions do not establish your GST entitlement. Contribution is before unallocated overheads and income tax.
| Stage | Quantity | Cost carried through | What to measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchased main ingredient | 10 kg | $80 | Invoice weight and price |
| After preparation at 80% yield | 8 kg | $80 | Usable weight after trimming |
| After cooking at 75% yield | 6 kg | $80 | Usable cooked weight |
| Main ingredient per planned portion | 200 g | 30 portions from 6 kg | Use the same measured serving size |
Original ASBG worked example. All businesses, amounts and scenarios are fictional. The table contains the same figures as the visual.
No separate scrap recovery is assumed. If trimmed material is used in another saleable recipe, document a sensible allocation rather than charging its full cost to both recipes. Subtract the container weight when measuring the food.
Add the rest of the recipe
Other batch ingredients cost $24. The full batch ingredient cost is therefore $104. Garnish costs $0.40 per serving and packaging costs $0.60. These per-serving costs are outside the $24 batch total.
Assumptions: Fictional Australian-dollar management-costing example. Amounts exclude GST that is assumed recoverable; any non-recoverable tax is already included in costs. These assumptions do not establish your GST entitlement. Contribution is before unallocated overheads and income tax.
| Measure | 200 g main-ingredient portion | 250 g main-ingredient portion |
|---|---|---|
| Cooked main ingredient available | 6 kg | 6 kg |
| Saleable portions from the batch | 30 | 24 |
| Batch ingredient cost | $104 | $104 |
| Batch ingredients per portion | $3.47 | $4.33 |
| Garnish plus packaging per portion | $1.00 | $1.00 |
| Food, garnish and packaging per portion | $4.47 | $5.33 |
Original ASBG worked example. All businesses, amounts and scenarios are fictional. The table contains the same figures as the visual.
The planned food cost is $104 ÷ 30 + $1 = $4.4667 per serving. At 250 grams of the main ingredient, only 24 portions fit and the cost becomes $104 ÷ 24 + $1 = $5.3333. The increase is about $0.87 per portion, before labour or overhead.
The weight in the table refers to the main ingredient only, not the total plated meal. The example assumes all other batch ingredients are used across the resulting portions. Adjust their usage too if a different serving size changes the whole recipe.
Account for unsold or unusable portions
If two of the thirty portions cannot be sold, the remaining sales need to carry their cost. With only 28 saleable portions and garnish and packaging used only on those 28, the same batch costs $104 ÷ 28 + $1 = $4.71 per saleable portion after rounding.
Track preparation yield separately from overproduction and spoilage. A yield already measured after trimming includes that trim loss; adding another blanket waste percentage for the same loss would double count it. Keep a short reason record so you can distinguish a recipe problem from making too much on a quiet day.
Add the work before setting the menu price
Suppose preparation and service for the 30-portion batch use two hours at a verified internal planning cost of $35 per hour. That adds $70 ÷ 30 = $2.33 per portion. Add a chosen $1.20 overhead allocation and the unrounded total becomes $8 per serving: $4.4667 + $2.3333 + $1.20.
Payment fees, delivery commissions and other selling costs may still remain. Don't select a selling price by food cost alone. Business.gov.au includes labour and overhead in pricing, while Business Victoria distinguishes direct and operating costs. Use the actual tax classification of your food and service when converting the internal cost model to a customer price.
Keep a recipe version, test date, supplier prices and measured yields together. Recheck when a pack size, supplier or serving utensil changes.
Where to get help
Use overhead allocation for shared costs and pricing strategy for the selling-price decision. Compare totals with the profit and loss, then explore pricing and profit.
Where to go from here
Allocate Overheads to Jobs: Choose a Cost Driver That Fits
Check which shared costs the work needs to recover.
3 min readCost of Goods Sold (COGS): Reconcile Stock and Purchases
Reconcile the inventory cost released during the period.
4 min readWholesale Pricing: What Remains After the Retailer Margin?
Continue the “cost a product” reading sequence.
3 min read
General information only. This guide doesn't take your personal or business circumstances into account and isn't financial, legal or tax advice. Rates and thresholds change — check the official sources linked in this guide and get qualified advice where your circumstances require it.