Every morning at 6 AM, food truck owners across the country start their prep work. You're calculating ingredient costs per portion but missing the hours spent chopping, marinating, and prepping. Most operators don't realize their real daily preparation costs, leaving money on the table.
What are mise-en-place costs?
Mise-en-place costs cover everything you spend preparing ingredients before service starts. We're talking chopping vegetables, marinating proteins, making sauces, washing and portioning ingredients. This labor and these ingredients cost real money, but many operators skip this in their pricing calculations.
💡 Example:
A taco truck's morning prep includes:
- Marinating meat: 2 hours labor
- Chopping vegetables: 1.5 hours labor
- Making salsas: 1 hour labor
- Warming and portioning tortillas: 30 minutes
Total: 5 hours of prep per day
Why this impacts your bottom line
Skip mise-en-place costs and your food cost percentage looks artificially low. You think you're running 28% food cost, but you're actually at 35%. That gap represents thousands in lost profit annually.
⚠️ Watch out:
Most food truck operators only price direct ingredients per portion. Those prep hours get overlooked, so you're unknowingly losing money on every single dish.
Components of mise-en-place costs
Your mise-en-place costs break down into three main areas:
- Labor costs: Your time or employee wages
- Base ingredients: Sauces, marinades, seasonings
- Waste: Trimming loss, failed batches
Calculating labor costs
Use your actual hourly rate, including payroll taxes and benefits. Self-employed? Calculate €15-20 per hour—that's what you'd pay someone else to do this work.
💡 Example calculation:
5 hours prep × €18/hour = €90 daily labor costs
At 150 portions daily = €90 ÷ 150 = €0.60 labor cost per portion
Base preparation ingredients
Track all ingredients used in prep that don't directly appear in individual portions. Oil for marinades, spices for bulk sauces, vinegar for dressings—it all adds up.
- Oil, vinegar, spices for marinades
- Base ingredients for batch-made sauces
- Cleaning supplies for prep areas
- Packaging materials for portioning
💡 Example daily base ingredients:
- Marinade (oil, spices): €8.50
- Sauce base: €12.00
- Cleaning supplies: €3.00
- Portioning containers: €4.50
Total: €28.00 per day
Waste and cutting loss
Build in 10-15% waste on your mise-en-place ingredients. Vegetables that don't make the cut, sauces that don't turn out right, leftover marinades.
Food trucks typically see higher waste percentages than restaurants—you've got less storage space and fewer opportunities to repurpose leftovers. From years of working in professional kitchens, I've seen this catch operators off guard repeatedly.
Total calculation per day
Add all components together, then divide by your expected daily portion count:
Mise-en-place cost per portion = (Labor costs + Base ingredients + Waste) ÷ Number of portions
💡 Complete calculation:
- Labor costs: €90
- Base ingredients: €28
- Waste (12%): €14.16
- Total per day: €132.16
At 150 portions: €132.16 ÷ 150 = €0.88 per portion
Impact on your food cost
That €0.88 gets added to your direct ingredient costs per dish. If your taco costs €3.20 in direct ingredients, your true cost becomes €4.08. At a €12.00 selling price (excl. 9% VAT = €11.01), your actual food cost is:
(€4.08 ÷ €11.01) × 100 = 37.1%
Without mise-en-place, it looked like 29.1%. That's an 8-percentage-point difference—potentially thousands in annual profit.
How to track this
Keep a daily prep log. Record time spent and ingredients used. After one week, you'll have solid averages for your cost calculations.
Tools like KitchenNmbrs automatically factor these costs into recipe calculations, so you always see true cost per portion.
How do you calculate mise-en-place costs? (step by step)
Measure your prep time for a week
Keep track of exactly how much time you spend each day chopping, marinating, making sauces and other prep work. Also note how many portions you sold that day.
Calculate your average daily labor costs
Multiply your average prep time by €15-20 per hour (what you'd pay an employee). These are your daily labor costs for mise-en-place.
Add up all base ingredients
Note all ingredients you use for marinades, sauces and other preparations that don't go directly into one portion. Add up the daily costs of these.
Factor in 10-15% waste
Add 10-15% to your base ingredients for cutting loss, failed sauces and other waste. Food trucks often have a bit more waste due to limited storage space.
Divide the total by your average number of portions
Add labor costs, base ingredients and waste together. Divide this by your average number of portions sold per day. This is your mise-en-place cost per portion.
✨ Pro tip
Track your prep times for 2 weeks straight, then find the inefficiencies. Most food truck operators can cut 45-60 minutes from their daily prep routine just by reorganizing their workflow and ingredient order.
Calculate this yourself?
In the KitchenNmbrs app you can do this in just a few clicks. 7 days free, no credit card.
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Frequently asked questions
Should I count my own time if I do the prep myself?
Absolutely yes. Your time has real value—calculate €15-20 per hour, which is what you'd pay an employee for this work. Otherwise you're severely underestimating your actual costs.
What if I don't sell the same amount every day?
Base your mise-en-place costs on your average daily sales. Busy days spread the costs thinner, slow days make them higher per portion. That's just how the math works out.
Can I prep ingredients 2-3 days ahead to reduce daily costs?
You can batch certain items, but factor in storage space limitations and food safety requirements. Some ingredients hold well for 72 hours, others don't. Calculate storage costs and potential waste from longer holding times too.
📚 Sources consulted
- EU Verordening 852/2004 — Levensmiddelenhygiëne (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 853/2004 — Hygiënevoorschriften voor levensmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 1169/2011 — Voedselinformatie aan consumenten (2011) — Official source
- NVWA — Hygiënecode voor de horeca (2024) — Official source
- NVWA — Allergenen in voedsel (2024) — Official source
- Codex Alimentarius — International Food Standards (2024) — Official source
- FSA — Safer food, better business (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- BVL — Lebensmittelhygiene (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- Warenwetbesluit Bereiding en behandeling van levensmiddelen (2024) — Official source
- WHO — Foodborne diseases estimates (2024) — Official source
Food Standards Agency (FSA) — https://www.food.gov.uk
The HACCP standards shown in this application are for informational purposes only. KitchenNmbrs does not guarantee that displayed values are current or complete. Always consult the FSA or your local authority for the latest regulations.
Written by
Jeffrey Smit
Founder & CEO of KitchenNmbrs
Jeffrey Smit built KitchenNmbrs from 8 years of hands-on experience as kitchen manager at 1NUL8 Group in Rotterdam. His mission: give every restaurant owner control over food cost.
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