The package got more expensive. Which dishes changed?
A 25% increase in one ingredient's purchase price does not mean every dish costs 25% more. Each recipe uses a different amount, and the rest of its ingredients may be unchanged.
Follow a chicken price increase
Illustrative example: a 10 kg package rises from $60 to $75. At 80% usable yield, the usable amount is 8,000 g. Its cost rises from $0.0075 to $0.009375 per usable gram.
| Recipe | Usable chicken | Old line cost | New line cost | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken plate | 200 g | $1.50 | $1.88 | +$0.38 |
| Chicken wrap | 120 g | $0.90 | $1.13 | +$0.23 |
| Chicken soup | 80 g | $0.60 | $0.75 | +$0.15 |
For the plate, suppose the other ingredients cost $1.10 and remain unchanged. Total ingredient cost rises from $2.60 to $2.975—displayed as $2.98. That is about 14.42%, even though the chicken itself rose 25%. Differences above are rounded independently from the underlying calculations.
Review a change in MenuCostFlow
- Keep the ingredient shared. Create one chicken record and reference it in each recipe. Include package size, unit, usable yield and the source date.
- Save your current recipes. The comparison uses your saved recipe inputs. Finish any ingredient or recipe edits before confirming a new price.
- Preview the new price. Choose chicken and enter the new package price. Review old and new costs for affected recipes, including recipes that use it through a subrecipe.
- Confirm with a source date. Check that the price is the one you intend to use. Older source dates need an explicit confirmation. The saved snapshot retains the inputs and comparison.
If the ingredient is in a sauce or prep batch
Use the prep batch as a subrecipe with its actual finished output. A dish using 50 ml of a 1,000 ml sauce batch takes 5% of that batch's cost. A price change underneath the sauce therefore carries through to that dish.
What the change does—and does not—tell you
The result describes ingredient costs for the inputs you entered. It does not measure sales volume, supplier reliability, labor or total business profit. Recheck package size and usable yield as well as price: a different pack or specification can change the comparison.
You supply prices from your own records. This is not an automatic supplier price feed. Read the calculation method or work through a full recipe cost.