Meal Prep Business: How to Calculate Cost Per Container and Scale Profitably
March 4, 20261 min read
The Meal Prep Margin Problem
Most meal prep businesses start with ingredient cost + container cost + delivery. They forget that labor alone (cooking, portioning, washing, packing) can represent 35–50% of total cost at small volumes.
The 5-Part Cost Breakdown Per Container
- Ingredients: Calculate via recipe costing tool. Typical range: $3–7 for a 500kcal meal.
- Container + lid: $0.25–1.20 depending on material and order volume.
- Labels + branding: $0.05–0.30 per unit.
- Labor: Time study your kitchen. If prep+pack takes 2 hours for 20 meals, labor is 6 minutes per meal. At $18/hr: $1.80 per container.
- Overhead allocation: Monthly kitchen cost ÷ meals produced per month.
Example: Grilled Chicken & Rice Bowl
| Ingredients | $4.35 |
| Container + label | $0.75 |
| Labor (6 min) | $1.80 |
| Overhead allocation | $0.90 |
| Total Cost | $7.80 |
| At 35% margin → Selling Price | $12.00 |
Volume Discounts Change Everything
Buying chicken in 10kg bulk vs 1kg packs saves 18–22%. At 100 meals/week, that's a meaningful cost reduction. Use RecipeCalc's cost calculator to model your recipe at different volume tiers and see where scale improves margins.
