Food Cost, czyli procentowy udział kosztu surowców w przychodach ze sprzedaży produktów, to podstawowy miernik efektywności kosztów produkcji w gastronomii. Artykuł tłumaczy, jak liczyć ten wskaźnik globalnie i w podziale na kategorie sprzedaży, dlaczego zwrotów i strat technologicznych nie wyłącza się z kosztów surowcowych oraz na czym polega klasyczny błąd polegający na przyjmowaniu do wskaźnika całkowitych przychodów ze sprzedaży. Autor przechodzi następnie do kluczowego problemu analitycznego: jak rozdzielić przychody ze sprzedaży produktów i towarów, i co właściwie jest towarem, a co surowcem.
Uwaga: zachowany skan obejmuje wyłącznie pierwszą stronę artykułu (s. 44). Tekst urywa się w połowie zdania — dalszy ciąg, opublikowany na kolejnej stronie czasopisma, nie znajduje się w skanie.
Food Cost. How to Calculate It Correctly?
Running a restaurant is a very complex activity; despite its contribution to cultural and sociological values, it is above all a business undertaking. In the absence of care over efficiency, a restaurant with an excellent offer for customers may find itself on the threshold of bankruptcy.
In calculating a restaurant’s Food Cost there therefore arises an important analytical problem: how correctly to separate the revenues from the sale of products and of goods, and the sister problem: what is a good, and what is a raw material?
The basic measure of the efficiency of production costs in the catering industry is Food Cost, that is, the percentage share of the cost of raw materials in the revenues from the sale of products. Food Cost can be calculated globally for the whole restaurant, or analysed in relation to individual sales categories, for example beverages and meals, for breakfasts or for events.
The aim of the Food Cost indicator is to determine the level of raw-material costs in the net sales achieved. It is not difficult to notice that the higher the unit price of a product, the lower the share of the cost of the raw materials used to prepare it. The higher the price, the higher the level of returns usually is, which raises the level of Food Cost — but more about that in a moment.
Food Cost can be applied both in relation to meals prepared in a restaurant and to the analysis of the efficiency of industrial catering production.
In the case of the manufacturing process of products with a short shelf life, returns constitute an important variable in the analysis of the Food Cost indicator. It is relatively easy to calculate the cost of the raw material used to produce a particular batch of products. It is somewhat more difficult to determine what cost of raw material was used to manufacture products returned unsold from retail outlets. A particular challenge for the analyst is to take into account returns as a raw material for the next production run. In baking, ground stale bread is commonly used as an additive to current production. Because of the difficulties mentioned above, the principle is commonly applied that, when calculating the Food Cost indicator, raw materials from returns and technological losses are not excluded. In other words, the total technological cost of the raw material is taken into account here, regardless of what subsequently happens to the products manufactured.
This solution has its drawbacks and its advantages. The advantage is a considerable simplification of the calculations; moreover, in the analysis of efficiency the costs of returns and losses have to be taken into account. If production and sales managers are held accountable for the share of raw-material costs in the volume of sales, they will certainly try to optimise production orders, striving to minimise returns.
On the other hand, with Food Cost calculated in this way it will not be possible to compare the theoretical sales model resulting from the recipes with the actual efficiency of sales. It will therefore not be possible to calculate the margin on pure sales.
In the case of production in a restaurant we may likewise take into account the raw-material costs of pure sales, or the total raw-material costs including returns, complaints and own consumption. In the latter case, all issues from the warehouse are included in the raw-material costs, including losses arising from the loss of fitness for consumption, and the costs of raw materials intended for free meals or tastings. A classic error in calculating a restaurant’s Food Cost is to adopt total revenues from sales in the indicator.
In accounting terms, revenues are divided into those from the sale of products (drinks, mixes and other items made in the restaurant) and those from the sale of goods (a bottle of wine, a bar of chocolate, a yoghurt). Revenues from the sale of goods and materials, and revenues from the sale of products, constitute two separate items in the profit and loss account.
In calculating a restaurant’s Food Cost there therefore arises an important analytical problem: how correctly to separate the revenues from the sale of products and of goods, and the sister problem: what is a good, and what is a raw material? In order to illustrate this problem, I shall make use of the example of a bottle of vodka.
A confectionery company may use vodka as a raw material or as a good. If drinks are going to be made from the vodka, or if it is going to constitute an additive to cakes, it is classified as a raw material. If the bottle of vodka is going to be sold by the glass, then it is classified in the books as a good. The problem is that if nobody declares at the outset that the alcohol will be used as
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Wojciech Moszczyński — graduate of the Department of Econometrics and Statistics of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń; specialist in econometrics, finance, data science, and management accounting. He specializes in the optimization of production and logistics processes. He conducts research in the area of the development and application of artificial intelligence. For years he has been engaged in the popularization of machine learning and data science in business environments.