How to work out food cost per resident in a care home
Most care homes know their monthly food bill, but not what a resident's day of meals actually costs. Here's a simple way to work it out – and use it.
In short: food cost per resident per day = what you used (opening stock + deliveries − closing stock) ÷ resident days. Work it out every week, not once a year, and cost your recipes per portion so you know why the number moves.
Why it's worth knowing
Food is one of the few big costs a care home controls day to day. Most homes know their monthly food bill, but not what a resident's day of meals actually costs – so it's hard to tell whether a menu change, a price rise or more waste is behind a jump in the bill.
Research has found many homes spending less than you might expect – a 2019 Sheffield Hallam University study of nine homes found an average under £2.50 per resident per day. Food prices have risen sharply since then, which is exactly why it pays to measure your own figure rather than rely on old benchmarks.
The basic sum
resident days = residents × days (count each resident for each day they were in)
cost per resident per day = food used ÷ resident days
A worked example
These are made-up round numbers to show the method:
- Stock on the shelves on Monday morning: £600
- Deliveries during the week: £1,450
- Stock left the following Monday: £550
- Food used: £600 + £1,450 − £550 = £1,500
- Residents: 40 for all 7 days = 280 resident days (if two were in hospital for three days, take off 6)
- Cost per resident per day: £1,500 ÷ 280 = £5.36
Without a stock take, invoices alone can mislead: a big delivery on a Friday makes one week look expensive and the next look cheap.
Decide what's in – and keep it the same
Your number is only useful if you count the same things every week. Decide whether to include:
- drinks, snacks and the tea trolley
- supplements and fortified products (or keep these separate, as some are prescribed)
- staff meals and visitors' meals
- special occasions – birthdays, Christmas, themed days
If staff eat from the same kitchen, either count them in the resident days or take an estimate of their food off – otherwise your per-resident figure looks higher than it really is.
Cost your recipes per portion
The weekly figure tells you what you spend; recipe costs tell you why. For each dish:
For example, 120 g of beef mince at £7.95 per kg is £0.95 a portion before you add anything else. Once your dishes are costed, a resident's day is just breakfast + lunch + pudding + tea + snacks, and you can see straight away which choices push the cost up.
Keep prices up to date: when a supplier puts a price up, every dish using that ingredient changes.
Ways to bring it down without cutting quality
- Take choices in advance. Cooking to what residents actually chose, rather than guessing, cuts both waste and running out.
- Standard recipes and portion sizes. The same dish should cost the same whoever cooks it. Offer small, normal and large portions instead of one size.
- Order to the menu, minus stock. Work out what the week's menu needs, take off what's on the shelf, and order the difference.
- Compare suppliers on your top items. A few ingredients – meat, fish, dairy – usually make up most of the bill.
- Watch plate waste. Food coming back on plates is money and nutrition lost. It's often a sign a dish or portion size isn't right.
- Plan the menu cycle with costs in view. Balance a more expensive dish with cheaper ones across the same day or week.
Cutting cost should never mean cutting nutrition: residents' nutrition and hydration needs, choices and special diets come first.
Where software helps
Platewell, our kitchen software for independent care homes, costs every dish from its ingredients and your suppliers' prices, works out the food cost per resident every day from the meals actually chosen, and compares it with your budget. It also builds your orders from the menu minus what's in stock. Read more about food cost per resident in Platewell, or try a demo care home without signing up.
Questions
How do you calculate food cost per resident per day?
Add your opening stock to the week's deliveries, take off the closing stock to get the food you used, then divide by resident days – the number of residents multiplied by the days they were in.
Should staff meals be included?
Decide once and stay consistent. If staff eat from the same kitchen, either count them in or take an estimate of their food off, otherwise your per-resident figure will look too high.
How often should we work it out?
Weekly is best. Monthly figures hide the cause of a rise – a price increase, a menu change or extra waste – until it's too late to fix that month.
Sources
- Research aims to improve care home catering (2019) (LaingBuisson News)
- Regulation 14: Meeting nutritional and hydration needs (CQC)