What describes how to perform calibration in recipe costing?

• A. Calibrating recipe costing involves adjusting the selling price only.
• B. Calibration is unnecessary if you have a standard recipe.
• C. Comparing actual costs and portions to the standard and adjusting unit costs or portions.
• D. Calibration means counting ingredients once a month.

Answer: (C)

Calibration in recipe costing means comparing what you actually use and spend to what the standard recipe assumes, then adjusting unit costs or portions so the cost per portion stays accurate. In practice, you track actual ingredient usage, current supplier prices, waste and yield, and the portion sizes served. If there’s a gap between the actual costs or yields and the standard, you update the recipe card’s unit cost or the portion size to align the calculated cost with the target food cost percentage. This keeps menu prices and profitability aligned with real operations.

Calibrating isn’t only about changing selling price, and it isn’t something you skip just because you have a standard recipe. Standards can drift with price changes or waste, so calibration is an ongoing validation rather than a one-time fix. It’s also not simply counting ingredients once a month; the process requires regularly comparing actuals to standards and updating as needed.