recipe cost allergens

Food businesses struggle to maintain accurate margins and allergen disclosures as ingredient prices fluctuate. Manual spreadsheets are prone to error and difficult to update. This skill automates the calculation of dish costs, food cost percentages, and allergen tracking using your raw supplier data and recipes.

What it does

• Margin analysis calculates cost per portion, net margin, and target pricing based on desired food cost percentages.
• Yield adjustment accounts for ingredient waste and trim loss (e.g., seafood or vegetable prep) to ensure precise costing.
• Allergen mapping identifies the 14 EU allergens across your menu, distinguishing between confirmed ingredients and "may contain" warnings.
• Automated reporting generates Excel workbooks for deep analysis and printable HTML allergen matrices for compliance.
• Sub-recipe management handles complex preparations like stocks, doughs, or sauces as reusable components in final dishes.

How it works

1. Import data by providing supplier invoices, price lists, or recipe cards in text, image, or spreadsheet format.
2. Build the model using the internal kitchen script to process ingredient yields, VAT rates, and menu settings.
3. Verify suggestions by reviewing flagged allergens identified through keyword matching in ingredient labels.
4. Export deliverables including the full kitchen.xlsx workbook and printable allergen charts.

Frameworks & tools

This tool uses a Python 3 environment (standard library) to process JSON data and generate Excel and HTML outputs. It operates locally without network requirements.

Why this beats prompting it yourself

Standard LLMs often make calculation errors with unit conversions and ingredient yields. This skill uses a structured script to ensure mathematical accuracy while providing a kitchen-friendly interface that translates technical data into actionable menu advice.

Use cases

• Auditing a restaurant menu to identify dishes with low margins.
• Generating a printable allergen matrix for front-of-house compliance.
• Updating seasonal menu costs when supplier prices increase.
• Calculating the impact of portion size changes on net profit.

Known limitations

Does not model kitchen cross-contamination or serve as a legal HACCP document. Accuracy depends entirely on the quality of provided supplier labels and recipe weights.