When you handle hundreds of covers daily on a fixed budget, every extra gram skyrockets annual spending. Miselup locks in the cost per menu from the recipe costing and alerts you if you go over budget before serving. Import delivery notes from your distributors and automatically recalculate the actual cost of each dish for the school canteen, nursing home, or corporate catering.
From €19/month per location No lock-in: cancel anytime Costings and margins in an afternoon
Spec sheet · dynamic
Stewed lentils with vegetables (school, 1st course)
Cost / serving: 0,26 €
52,40 €Explore the catalog, recipe costing, HACCP controls and traceability in Miselup.
In institutional catering (schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and corporate cafeterias), recipe costing isn't optional: without rigorous per-menu cost control, the average annual loss soars to 5%–8% of the kitchen budget, according to industry data. That's thousands of euros vanishing through unrecorded waste, outdated purchase prices, or poorly adjusted servings.
With a live digital recipe costing tool, each menu shows its real margin per cover before service. You can then decide to swap an expensive protein, tweak portion sizes, or renegotiate with suppliers—all while maintaining your target food cost (usually 30–35%) without sacrificing the nutritional quality required by the contract.
Calculate menu costs for schools, care homes and workplace canteens. Update recipe costs from purchase prices and review the margin per cover.
Set a maximum cost per cover and instantly check if your two-course school menu with dessert is viable. The food cost traffic light stops you before approving a recipe that ruins the margin.
Your suppliers change prices every month. When you update the purchase cost, all the recipe costings of your rotating menus refresh without touching a single cell. You know today how much tomorrow's menu really costs.
Present allergen and weight spec sheets to the school or company management without exposing your margins. One click to share the information they need and keep yours private.
Start with the standardized recipe for the expected number of guests. List each ingredient with its purchase unit (kg, liters, pieces) and the updated price from your most recent invoice.
Peel, debone, and trim raw ingredients to get the net weight. In institutional settings, peeling vegetables typically wastes 10–15%, bone-in meats up to 25%; dry goods (legumes, rice) have 0% waste.
Add up the net cost of all ingredients and divide by the number of servings. Include spices, oil, and salt as a fixed cost (€0.02–0.05 per serving).
Proportionally include labor, energy, cleaning, and transport. In public schools, these usually range from €0.80 to €1.20 per meal, depending on the contract and kitchen size.
With the total cost per cover, apply the margin you need (30–35% food cost). If the resulting selling price exceeds the bid price, adjust ingredients or servings without compromising nutritional balance.
Enter the ingredient cost and the menu price: you'll see your food cost, the margin and whether you're in the target range (25-35%).
Food cost
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Price before VAT
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Gross margin per unit sold
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Typical target range: 25-35% depending on the business.
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Cost breakdown for a school canteen, adapted for high volume with controlled cost and realistic waste. Balanced and affordable recipe with easy-to-prepare ingredients.
| Ingredient | Quantity | Waste | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pardina lentils | 80 g | 2% | 0,144 € |
| Chorizo | 22 g | 5% | 0,132 € |
| Potato | 75 g | 20% | 0,038 € |
| Carrot | 36 g | 15% | 0,029 € |
| Onion | 28 g | 10% | 0,017 € |
| Bell pepper | 30 g | 15% | 0,045 € |
| Olive oil | 7 ml | 0% | 0,032 € |
Total cost
0,44 €
Food cost
33,6 %
Suggested price
1,30 €
Margin
0,86 €
Indicative calculation based on purchase prices for institutional catering and standard waste.
30-35%
Target food cost in institutional catering
industry reports
€4.50
Average cost per school meal in Spain (2026)
Spain market data
8-12%
Average waste in central kitchens
industry reports
€0.80-1.20
Indirect costs per cover
Spain market data
Contract catering
Using months-old rates distorts the real food cost. In institutional catering, where contracts run long, a 10% spike in chicken prices can wipe out your margin if you don't recalculate instantly.
Legumes gain weight when cooked, but meats lose up to 30%. If you don't adjust the cooked serving size, guests get less than planned and costs skyrocket.
Hot transport, disposable ware, or tray cleaning are real expenses that many kitchens forget, skewing the costing by up to €0.30 per meal.
The dish is dreamed up first, then the cost is calculated. The right order is the opposite: recipe costing should validate whether the recipe is viable before it lands on the monthly plan.
From schools to hospitals, each environment demands a different cost approach.
Allergen control and nutritional balance come first. The food cost tends to be tighter (30–32%) and servings are strictly regulated by age group.
Includes standard and therapeutic diets. Waste is higher due to modified textures and protein supplements, driving up the cost per cover.
Pureed and soft-chew menus. Personalization multiplies the number of SKUs; recipe costing must track the cost of each diet type.
Staff canteens with a higher average ticket. Here margins can be wider (28–30% food cost) and include premium options like a grill station or wok.
Large-scale production with very short shelf life. Costing is done per tray and considers exact weight to avoid aircraft fuel penalties.
Chefs, pastry chefs, bartenders, baristas and chocolatiers who swapped spreadsheets and notebooks for Miselup.
Carlos Mendoza
Owner · La Mesa Restaurant
“Every recipe change used to be a mess. With Miselup, if I bump the sirloin by 20 g, I see the real cost instantly. It's amazing—I no longer lose margin without noticing. Now costing is quick and safe, no calculator needed.”
Diego Valdés
Head Bartender · Nébula Bar
“My team sees the production sheet without any cost breakdown. That way they measure every cocktail precisely—no more over- or under-pouring. The recipe stays clear, and the numbers stay for my eyes only.”
Isabel Vega
Artisan Chocolatier · Bombones Amargo
“For a big order of 300 boxes, I enter the base recipe for 10 chocolates and Miselup scales everything: grams, time, cost. No neurotic math. From small workshop to large order, the scaling is spot on and I don't waste a single gram of cocoa.”
Carlos Mendoza
Owner · La Mesa Restaurant
“Every recipe change used to be a mess. With Miselup, if I bump the sirloin by 20 g, I see the real cost instantly. It's amazing—I no longer lose margin without noticing. Now costing is quick and safe, no calculator needed.”
Diego Valdés
Head Bartender · Nébula Bar
“My team sees the production sheet without any cost breakdown. That way they measure every cocktail precisely—no more over- or under-pouring. The recipe stays clear, and the numbers stay for my eyes only.”
Isabel Vega
Artisan Chocolatier · Bombones Amargo
“For a big order of 300 boxes, I enter the base recipe for 10 chocolates and Miselup scales everything: grams, time, cost. No neurotic math. From small workshop to large order, the scaling is spot on and I don't waste a single gram of cocoa.”
Carlos Mendoza
Owner · La Mesa Restaurant
“Every recipe change used to be a mess. With Miselup, if I bump the sirloin by 20 g, I see the real cost instantly. It's amazing—I no longer lose margin without noticing. Now costing is quick and safe, no calculator needed.”
Diego Valdés
Head Bartender · Nébula Bar
“My team sees the production sheet without any cost breakdown. That way they measure every cocktail precisely—no more over- or under-pouring. The recipe stays clear, and the numbers stay for my eyes only.”
Isabel Vega
Artisan Chocolatier · Bombones Amargo
“For a big order of 300 boxes, I enter the base recipe for 10 chocolates and Miselup scales everything: grams, time, cost. No neurotic math. From small workshop to large order, the scaling is spot on and I don't waste a single gram of cocoa.”
Lucía Ramírez
Pastry Chef · Dulce Masa Bakery
“I always jot down recipes in my test notebook. I snap a photo with Miselup, and the AI turns that page into a technical sheet with exact ingredients and weights. It's magic—saves me hours of copying data and eliminates errors completely.”
Ana Solís
Catering Director · Sol y Sombra Events
“For each wedding menu, I instantly see if the proposal is green or red. The margin traffic light tells me if I'm over cost before sending the quote. I negotiate with data, not blind. And I sleep easy once every event is locked in.”
Lucía Ramírez
Pastry Chef · Dulce Masa Bakery
“I always jot down recipes in my test notebook. I snap a photo with Miselup, and the AI turns that page into a technical sheet with exact ingredients and weights. It's magic—saves me hours of copying data and eliminates errors completely.”
Ana Solís
Catering Director · Sol y Sombra Events
“For each wedding menu, I instantly see if the proposal is green or red. The margin traffic light tells me if I'm over cost before sending the quote. I negotiate with data, not blind. And I sleep easy once every event is locked in.”
Lucía Ramírez
Pastry Chef · Dulce Masa Bakery
“I always jot down recipes in my test notebook. I snap a photo with Miselup, and the AI turns that page into a technical sheet with exact ingredients and weights. It's magic—saves me hours of copying data and eliminates errors completely.”
Ana Solís
Catering Director · Sol y Sombra Events
“For each wedding menu, I instantly see if the proposal is green or red. The margin traffic light tells me if I'm over cost before sending the quote. I negotiate with data, not blind. And I sleep easy once every event is locked in.”
Lucía Ramírez
Pastry Chef · Dulce Masa Bakery
“I always jot down recipes in my test notebook. I snap a photo with Miselup, and the AI turns that page into a technical sheet with exact ingredients and weights. It's magic—saves me hours of copying data and eliminates errors completely.”
Ana Solís
Catering Director · Sol y Sombra Events
“For each wedding menu, I instantly see if the proposal is green or red. The margin traffic light tells me if I'm over cost before sending the quote. I negotiate with data, not blind. And I sleep easy once every event is locked in.”
Alongside menu costs, document the canteen’s procedures, retention samples, temperatures and corrective actions according to its plan.
Contract catering
John Guerrero
Gastronomy consultant · Founder of ChefBusiness and Miselup
15+ years advising restaurants, bakeries and hospitality businesses across Spain and Latam. Creator of ChefBusiness, AI Chef Pro and Miselup: the digital mise en place his clients use to control food cost to the cent.
Get costs and margins under control from day one and run your business on real numbers. From €19 a month; Mise Pro adds purchasing, inventory and daily P&L.