Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
True health margin per plate
$8.97
Health margin %
52.8%
True cost (food + labor + waste)
$8.03
Food cost % alone (for comparison)
32.4%
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How to use this
- 1Enter plate cost (ingredients) ($).
- 2Enter prep time per plate (min).
- 3Enter loaded kitchen labor rate ($/hr).
- 4Enter typical waste/trim allowance (%).
- 5Enter menu price ($).
- 6Read your true health margin per plate on the right — it updates as you type.
- 7Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Straight food cost percentage misses two things that materially change how profitable a dish really is: prep labor time and typical waste/trim loss specific to that item. A dish with a great 28% food cost but 12 minutes of skilled prep per plate can be less profitable per labor-hour than a 33% food cost dish that plates in 3 minutes. This calculator combines plate cost, an estimated prep labor cost (minutes times loaded labor rate), and a waste allowance percentage into a fuller 'health margin' per item, then expresses it both in dollars and as a percentage of price, giving a more complete profitability picture than food cost percentage alone. Use this when deciding which dishes to feature, simplify, or cut — a labor-intensive scratch item might need a price increase or menu repositioning even if its raw food cost percentage looks fine on paper.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Plate cost (ingredients): 5.5 $
- Prep time per plate: 6 min
- Loaded kitchen labor rate: 22 $/hr
- Typical waste/trim allowance: 6 %
- Menu price: 17 $
Results
- True health margin per plate: $8.97
- Health margin %: 52.8%
- True cost (food + labor + waste): $8.03
- Food cost % alone (for comparison): 32.4%
What each field means
Inputs
- Plate cost (ingredients) ($)
- The plate cost (ingredients) used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 5.5 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Prep time per plate (min)
- The prep time per plate used in the calculation, measured in min. Starts at 6 min so you have a working example on load.
- Loaded kitchen labor rate ($/hr)
- The loaded kitchen labor rate used in the calculation, measured in $/hr. Starts at 22 $/hr so you have a working example on load.
- Typical waste/trim allowance (%)
- The typical waste/trim allowance used in the calculation, measured in %. Starts at 6 % so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 0–30 %.
- Menu price ($)
- The menu price used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 17 $ so you have a working example on load.
Results
- True health margin per plate
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Health margin %
- Returned as a percentage. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- True cost (food + labor + waste)
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Food cost % alone (for comparison)
- Returned as a percentage. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
Why is this different from regular food cost percentage?
Food cost percentage only counts ingredients. This adds the prep labor minutes specific to that dish and a waste allowance for trim loss, giving a fuller picture of what a dish actually costs to produce — two dishes with identical food cost % can have very different true profitability.
How do I estimate prep minutes accurately?
Time an experienced cook making the dish from mise en place to plate during a normal shift, not a rushed test. Include portioning and plating time, not just cooking time, since garnish and plating complexity is often the hidden labor cost in a beautiful-looking dish.
What should I do with a dish that has poor health margin?
Options in order of ease: simplify the plating or garnish to cut minutes, adjust portion size slightly, raise price if the dish is popular enough to absorb it, or remove it from the menu if it's neither high-margin nor a traffic driver.
Does this replace menu engineering analysis?
No, it complements it. Menu engineering compares margin against menu average and sales volume; this calculator gives you a more accurate margin number to feed into that analysis in the first place, especially for labor-intensive scratch items.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
Related tools
Menu Engineering Margin Calculator
Classify a dish as Star, Plowhorse, Puzzle, or Dog by margin and popularity.
Food Cost Percentage Calculator
Find your plate cost as a share of menu price and where it lands vs. target.
Recipe Yield & Batch Scaling Calculator
Scale a recipe up or down to a new batch size with per-ingredient math.
Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Menu Item Health Margin Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/health-margin-per-menu-item
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/health-margin-per-menu-item" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Menu Item Health Margin Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Menu Item Health Margin Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/health-margin-per-menu-item) (2026).