Why actual food cost is higher than your recipe cost

Recipe cost tells you what a dish should consume under a stated recipe and yield. Actual food cost starts with what happened to the stock. The difference deserves investigation, not an automatic accusation.

Calculate actual usage first

For one ingredient, add opening stock, purchases and transfers in. Subtract supplier returns, transfers out and closing stock. If you started with 50 kg, bought 100 kg and counted 70 kg at the end, actual usage was 80 kg. A missing closing count is not a zero balance: the calculation is incomplete.

Connect usage to food actually prepared

Multiply prepared portions by the ingredient requirement of the recipe version used. Include staff meals and complimentary food. If a guest received a refund after eating a meal, revenue changed but the ingredients did not return to the shelf. Apply trimming yield once, not once in the recipe and again in the stock calculation.

Explain what you can

Suppose the recipes explain 60 kg and separately recorded additional waste explains 10 kg. Against actual usage of 80 kg, the remaining unexplained amount is 10 kg. It may reflect over-portioning, missing records, an incorrect recipe, a counting problem or another cause. The number alone does not identify which one.

Separate price from quantity

At a standard price of $2 per kg, the recipe amount costs $120. If the actual average price was $3, actual usage costs $240. The $120 difference consists of $40 from usage above the recipe quantity and $80 from the price change on actual usage. Mixing these effects makes it harder to choose the right action.

Keep the boundary consistent

Prepared sauces and dough need special care. If you count them as stock, keep their recipe version and raw-ingredient equivalent. Do not count an internal production movement twice. Compare periods only when the stock boundary, units and recipe treatment are consistent.

Kitchen Usage & Food Loss Control brings those records and explanations together. Inspect the fictional demo, then use the reports to investigate your own differences. To price dishes before service, see Menu Profit Planner; for shelf-level stock counts and shrinkage, see Stocktake & Shrinkage Control.

Explore the fictional demo · See the full tool