Every three months, restaurant owners discover their food costs are 20% higher than expected. You're calculating with invoice prices, but delivery fees, surcharges and VAT quietly inflate your actual ingredient costs. These hidden expenses can push your real cost price up by 15-25%.
What are hidden costs in purchasing?
Most restaurant operators focus only on the price per kilogram listed on invoices. But additional fees stack up quickly and dramatically impact your bottom line:
- Delivery costs: €15-50 per delivery
- Minimum order surcharges: €5-25 for small orders
- Refrigerated transport: €10-30 extra for fresh products
- Fuel surcharge: 2-5% of order value
- Administrative costs: €2-10 per invoice
⚠️ Note:
These charges appear at invoice bottoms where they're easily missed. They'll bump your actual purchase price up by 10-25%.
Calculate your actual cost price per kilo
Your true cost price has three components: base product price, additional surcharges and VAT. Here's the correct calculation method:
? Example calculation:
Order from vegetable supplier:
- Tomatoes: 10 kg × €3.50 = €35.00
- Delivery costs: €20.00
- Fuel surcharge: €1.75 (5%)
- Subtotal: €56.75
- VAT (9%): €5.11
Total incl. VAT: €61.86
Actual price per kg tomatoes: €61.86 ÷ 10 kg = €6.19/kg
Instead of €3.50/kg you're actually paying €6.19/kg!
Distribute surcharges across your order
Delivery fees and other surcharges get split proportionally among all products in your order. From analyzing actual purchasing data across different restaurant types, larger orders significantly reduce the per-kilogram impact of these fixed costs:
? Example distribution:
Order €200 product value + €25 delivery costs:
- Total surcharges: 12.5% of product value
- Steak €40: surcharge €5.00 → total €45.00
- Vegetables €30: surcharge €3.75 → total €33.75
- Fish €50: surcharge €6.25 → total €56.25
Process VAT correctly
Food products carry 9% VAT in the Netherlands. This VAT gets included in your purchase price, and you can reclaim it if you're VAT-registered:
- Invoice price incl. VAT: what you pay to the supplier
- Invoice price excl. VAT: what you use for cost price calculation
- Formula: Price excl. VAT = Price incl. VAT ÷ 1.09
? VAT example:
Salmon: €25.00 incl. 9% VAT
- Price excl. VAT: €25.00 ÷ 1.09 = €22.94
- VAT amount: €25.00 - €22.94 = €2.06
For cost price calculation you use €22.94, not €25.00.
Optimize your orders
Strategic ordering reduces surcharge impact on your cost price. Smart purchasing decisions can save you hundreds monthly:
- Combine deliveries: Order multiple product groups at the same time
- Reach minimum order value: Avoid surcharges for small orders
- Plan ahead: Fewer rush deliveries means lower costs
- Compare total costs: Not just product prices, but also surcharges
⚠️ Note:
A supplier with lower product prices can turn out more expensive due to high delivery costs. Always calculate the total costs.
Track all costs in one system
Accurate cost price calculation requires recording all purchasing expenses. Many restaurants use tools like KitchenNmbrs to automatically calculate the actual cost price per ingredient, including all surcharges and VAT.
Related articles
How do you calculate the total cost price? (step by step)
Gather all invoice details
Note the product price, all surcharges (delivery, fuel, administration) and the VAT amount from your invoice. Don't miss any surcharge, no matter how small.
Add product price and surcharges
Sum the product price and all surcharges for the subtotal excl. VAT. This is your actual purchase price before you add VAT.
Distribute surcharges across products
Allocate the surcharges proportionally to each product. If surcharges are 10% of the product value, increase each product price by 10%.
Calculate price per unit
Divide the total costs (including surcharges) by the number of kilos or pieces. This is your actual cost price that you use for your food cost calculation.
✨ Pro tip
Track your 15 highest-volume ingredients weekly and recalculate their total cost including all surcharges every 2 weeks. This catches price increases before they damage your margins.
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 include VAT in my cost price?
How do I distribute delivery costs across different products?
What if my supplier doesn't list surcharges separately?
How often should I update my cost prices?
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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
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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