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If you’ve ever been curious about how much restaurants are marking up the price of ingredients in your favorite foods, we finally have an answer!
Read more: The secret reason why a McDonald’s Coke tastes the best
Plate IQ, a company that processes invoices for thousands of restaurants, used its data to determine the markup you pay for common food items.
Ready to be surprised? The study found that the markup ranges anywhere from 155% to 636%!
According to Plate IQ, a pizza loaded with meat only costs a restaurant $1.90 to make — and it sells for $14, the highest markup of the five foods analyzed.
“A big contributor to these huge markups is the incredibly low cost of making the crusts,” Plate IQ explained in its findings. “A pizzeria can buy a 50-pound case of flour for around $15. This works out to around 20 cents’ worth of flour per pizza. The yeast costs less than one cent per pizza.”
The study also looked at the markup on a hamburger, burrito, omelette and cobb salad.
Plate IQ has access to the actual costs of the raw ingredients that go into the five foods mentioned in the table above.
The massive markups are necessary for restaurants to cover operating expenses, such as labor and rent. Many restaurants only make a 3% to 5% profit.
The lesson here? You may save a few bucks by making your pizza at home!
Read more: 5 secret menu hacks you probably haven’t tried
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