Bacon roll: how much it costs to make, per serve
The breakfast-counter staple: three rashers of grilled back bacon in a buttered 5-inch floured bap. Costed from JJ Foodservice wholesale prices dated 9 October 2026. Sauce sachets are left out; add your own if they go out free.
The menu price is the one ChefSums uses for this dish on its sample café menu, a realistic UK menu price. The lowest price is the one that just reaches 68% GP, the UK food GP benchmark (UKHospitality × Christie & Co, 2022: 65.9–69% food GP across every segment). It covers the ingredients at a normal margin, not staff, rent or energy, and most cafés, pubs and takeaways charge more for simple dishes. Check what places near you charge. GP is worked out on the ex-VAT price.
Open in ChefSums — edit, cost, scale →
Ingredients and cost, one serve
| Ingredient | Pack price | Pack size | Used | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back bacon, rindless | £8.99 | 2270 g | 75 g | £0.30 |
| Floured bap, 5-inch | £15.99 | 48 each | 1 each | £0.33 |
| Unsalted butter | £30.49 | 5000 g | 8 g | £0.05 |
| Total | £0.68 | |||
Cost per line is pack price × (amount used ÷ pack size), the same sum the tool runs. Change one pack price and every line that uses it moves.
What it really costs: waste and staff time
| Ingredients | £0.68 |
| Waste allowance, 5% (trim, ends, the odd one binned) | £0.03 |
| Staff time: 2 min hands-on per serve at £12.71/hr + 25% on-cost | £0.53 |
| Food, waste and staff per serve | £1.24 |
At the sample café menu price (£3.29 ex VAT) that is 38% of the price, before rent, energy and everything else. Many UK sites aim to keep food plus staff (prime cost) at or under 60–65% of sales. The staff line counts hands-on prep only, not unattended cooking, and uses the April 2026 National Living Wage; put your own rate, minutes and waste in the calculator's real cost section or the prime cost calculator. Every dish side by side: the UK dish cost index.
Method
- Grill or griddle the bacon until the fat crisps at the edges, about 2-3 minutes a side.
- Split the bap, butter it and warm it cut-side down on the griddle for 20 seconds.
- Fill with the bacon and serve straight away; a bap that sits in a hot cabinet goes leathery inside ten minutes.
Costing notes
Back bacon from a 2.27 kg catering pack runs at roughly 25 g a rasher, so three rashers is about 75 g raw. The bap and the bacon cost about the same, roughly 30p each; a fourth rasher on a "large" roll adds about 10p, so price the upgrade accordingly.
Free brown sauce and ketchup sachets cost a few pence each; even at a 68% GP target that is still worth putting in the costing if most customers take two.
Where the prices came from
JJ Foodservice collection prices as shown on its public search pages on 9 October 2026 (delivery runs about £1-2 a case higher). A few lines JJ did not list in that day's searches reuse the dated prices already on our other starter recipes (7 September 2026, JJ Foodservice or Tesco retail, marked on each line). JJ does not label VAT on most lines: raw food is zero-rated in the UK, while soft drinks, alcohol, confectionery and some ingredients carry standard-rate VAT. Your supplier's price is the one that matters: open the recipe and type it in.
- Back bacon, rindless: A1 Rindless Back Bacon 1x2.27kg (BAC002), 2.27 kg, £8.99 collection — JJ Foodservice, accessed 2026-10-09
- Floured bap, 5-inch: Kara 5" Sandwich Floured Baps 1x48, 48 each, £15.99 collection — JJ Foodservice, accessed 2026-10-09
- Unsalted butter: Lakeland Unsalted Butter 20x250g (DAI186), 5 kg, £30.49 collection — JJ Foodservice, accessed 2026-10-09
More costed dishes: café and breakfast
- Flat white — £0.41 a serve
- Full English breakfast — £2.24 a serve
- Jacket potato with tuna mayo — £1.31 a serve
- Cheese and ham toastie — £1.18 a serve