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How the ingredient cost of a recipe is calculated
In the bakehouse, everything comes down to the individual item. You cost the whole batch, then divide by the number of genuinely saleable items — and only then look at the selling price.
Ingredient cost of the batchfor each ingredient, the sum of the quantity × its purchase price per kilo or per litre
Ingredient cost per itemingredient cost of the batch ÷ number of items produced
Recommended selling price excl. VATingredient cost per item ÷ (target ingredient cost ÷ 100)
Recommended price incl. VATselling price excl. VAT × (1 + VAT rate ÷ 100)
What each term means
- Ingredient cost
- The price of the ingredients alone: flour, salt, yeast or sourdough, butter, sugar, eggs, chocolate. Water and energy aren't in it — they belong to the full cost price, calculated afterwards.
- Items produced
- The number of saleable items that come out of the oven, not the theoretical number. A batch of 30 baguettes where 2 are overbaked yields 28 to sell: it's by 28 that you divide.
- Target ingredient cost
- The share of the selling price excl. VAT you're prepared to spend on ingredients. In bakery and pastry, it usually sits between 20 and 30% — the rest funds heavy labour, the oven's energy and the unsold stock.
- VAT
- In France, bread, viennoiserie and pastry sold to take away fall under 5,5%; eat-in moves to 10%. It's the 5,5% rate that serves as the reference for a shop-window price.
A worked example: a batch of three loaves
One kilo of flour, three 500 g country loaves. These are the calculator's pre-filled values.
- T65 flour: 1 kg at 0,80 €/kg1 × 0,80 = 0,80 €
- Salt: 20 g at 0,50 €/kg0,020 × 0,50 = 0,01 €
- Yeast: 30 g at 3 €/kg0,030 × 3 = 0,09 €
- Ingredient cost of the batch0,80 + 0,01 + 0,09 = 0,90 €
- Items produced3 saleable loaves → 0,90 ÷ 3 = 0,30 € per loaf
- Target ingredient cost 25%0,30 ÷ 0,25 = 1,20 € excl. VAT
- VAT 5,5% (takeaway)1,20 × 1,055 = 1,27 € incl. VAT
0,30 € of ingredients per loaf · recommended price 1,27 € incl. VAT at 25% ingredient cost.
A useful benchmark: a traditional baguette runs around 0,30 to 0,40 € in ingredients. In other words, most of its price doesn't pay for the flour — it pays for the kneading, the shaping, the oven's energy and the night hours. That's why a 20% rise in flour doesn't justify a 20% rise in the window, and why an elaborate pastry can be less profitable than a plain loaf despite a price three times higher. The bakery ingredient cost app also handles intermediate preparations — pastry cream, sourdough, détrempe — cascaded through every recipe that uses them.
FAQ
Bakery ingredient cost: frequently asked questions
Ingredient cost, price per item, margin: the bakehouse's benchmarks.
How do you calculate the ingredient cost of a bakery recipe?
Multiply each ingredient by its purchase price per kilo or per litre, add them up, then divide by the number of saleable items out of the oven. Example: 1 kg of flour at 0,80 €, 20 g of salt and 30 g of yeast make 0,90 € of ingredients for the batch; split across 3 loaves, that's 0,30 € of ingredients per loaf. Remember to convert: an ingredient measured in grams is calculated on a per-kilo price (30 g at 3 €/kg = 0,09 €).
What ingredient cost percentage should a bakery aim for?
Ingredient cost commonly accounts for 20 to 30% of the selling price excl. VAT in bakery and pastry. At 25%, a product that costs 0,30 € in ingredients sells for 1,20 € excl. VAT. The range is lower than in a restaurant because labour and the bakehouse's energy weigh more heavily: the oven runs whether it's full or half-empty.
Is ingredient cost enough to set the selling price?
No: ingredient cost is only part of the cost price. You have to add labour (kneading, shaping, proving, baking × all-in hourly rate), the oven's energy, packaging, rent and the end-of-day unsold stock. The target ingredient cost is a handy shortcut for setting a price quickly, but it's the margin per product, once every cost is counted, that tells you whether the window is profitable.
What VAT applies to bread and viennoiseries?
In France, bakery and pastry products sold to take away fall under the reduced rate of 5,5%, while eat-in — a coffee and croissant at a table — falls under 10%. So the same croissant can have two prices incl. VAT depending on how it's sold. Check your case with your accountant, especially if you run a tea-room corner.
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