If you raise your prices on 1 January, you have two jobs: the numbers and the guests. The numbers come first: which dishes your purchasing has actually made more expensive, and by how much. Then come the menu, as the Swiss price display ordinance (Preisbekanntgabeverordnung, PBV) requires it, and a short notice for your guests, given here in four languages. A higher price is not the only lever; what to check first, and in which order, is in the article on a good food cost percentage.
Which dishes need recalculating for 1 January?
The ones whose food cost your purchasing has changed, and of those, the ones whose food cost percentage at the current menu price rises above the business’s target. You do not need to recost any dish from scratch. All it takes are the new purchase prices of the ingredients that went up most, from the supplier’s price list or the latest invoice, and for every dish that contains them one multiplication: quantity in the recipe times price difference. That is the increase per plate.
The difference counts from the price your current menu is costed at, not from the price before the latest increase. Quantity and price must refer to the same goods. For an ingredient you trim, multiply the purchased quantity by the difference, not the trimmed quantity (yield and waste). In the example this does not arise, because the veal comes sliced or as escalopes and the perch as fillets.
The figures are example values for a VAT-registered business that uses the effective method. It has ten dishes on the menu, all dine-in at 8.1% VAT (as of 2026), works out food cost excluding VAT, and has set itself a target food cost of 30%, as in the example in the article how to price a dish, which also explains the rate for take-away dishes and its condition. The food cost percentage is the food cost divided by the net price, that is, by the menu price without the 8.1%. Four of the dishes come, with their menu price and food cost, from the menu engineering example. Four purchase prices go up on 1 January:
| Ingredient | Before | New | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veal | CHF 48.00 per kg | CHF 54.00 per kg | CHF 6.00 |
| Perch fillets | CHF 52.00 per kg | CHF 58.00 per kg | CHF 6.00 |
| Butter | CHF 14.00 per kg | CHF 16.00 per kg | CHF 2.00 |
| Full cream | CHF 7.50 per litre | CHF 8.50 per litre | CHF 1.00 |
The Zurich-style sliced veal with rösti takes 170 g of veal, 30 g of butter and 1 dl of full cream per plate:
Veal: 0.170 kg × CHF 6.00 = CHF 1.02
Butter: 0.030 kg × CHF 2.00 = CHF 0.06
Full cream: 0.1 l × CHF 1.00 = CHF 0.10
Increase per plate: CHF 1.18; the food cost rises from CHF 11.20 to CHF 12.38
The same for every dish on the menu:
| Dish | Menu price | Food cost (CHF) before | Increase | Food cost (CHF) new | Food cost percentage before → new |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pumpkin soup | CHF 12.50 | CHF 2.30 | CHF 0.07 | CHF 2.37 | 19.9 → 20.5% |
| Lamb’s lettuce with egg | CHF 16.50 | CHF 3.40 | CHF 0.00 | CHF 3.40 | 22.3 → 22.3% |
| Zurich-style sliced veal with rösti | CHF 42.00 | CHF 11.20 | CHF 1.18 | CHF 12.38 | 28.8 → 31.9% |
| Veal escalope with chips | CHF 39.50 | CHF 10.60 | CHF 1.00 | CHF 11.60 | 29.0 → 31.7% |
| Perch fillets with boiled potatoes | CHF 39.00 | CHF 10.76 | CHF 1.16 | CHF 11.92 | 29.8 → 33.0% |
| Cordon bleu with chips | CHF 36.00 | CHF 8.70 | CHF 0.00 | CHF 8.70 | 26.1 → 26.1% |
| Älplermagronen (alpine macaroni) with apple sauce | CHF 26.50 | CHF 4.70 | CHF 0.12 | CHF 4.82 | 19.2 → 19.7% |
| Vegetable curry with rice | CHF 27.00 | CHF 4.60 | CHF 0.00 | CHF 4.60 | 18.4 → 18.4% |
| Pasta dish | CHF 24.00 | CHF 3.60 | CHF 0.03 | CHF 3.63 | 16.2 → 16.4% |
| Chocolate mousse | CHF 12.00 | CHF 2.20 | CHF 0.10 | CHF 2.30 | 19.8 → 20.7% |
Three dishes rise above 30%, and they are exactly the three with veal or perch; the cordon bleu here is pork. Had you recalculated only those two ingredients, you would have found the same three in the example. Butter and cream make a difference of centimes on the other dishes, and those sit far enough below 30%. If a dish sits just under the target, even centimes can lift it above. Only a calculation with the sales can show whether the food cost percentage of the whole menu is still right afterwards; the per-dish comparison tells you which dish to look at.
If you want to update every ingredient, enter the new prices once in your costing. In the recipe costing template that is one cell per ingredient on the “Ingredients” sheet, and every dish that uses the ingredient follows.
Where to start if time is short: with the dishes that sell most. There every centime of increase counts as often as the plate leaves the pass, and a menu engineering analysis shows which dishes those are.
How much should the price go up?
At least enough for the plate to leave as many francs after food cost as before. If you also want the food cost percentage back at the target, you need the price the target calls for, and in the example that is more. The target price comes, as in the article how to price a dish, from food cost and target, with the VAT that applies to the dish, rounding and cross-check; the floor price from the new food cost and the previous contribution margin.
For the Zurich-style sliced veal, which has so far brought in CHF 27.65 of contribution margin per plate:
Floor price: CHF 12.38 + CHF 27.65 = CHF 40.03 net, × 1.081 = CHF 43.27, rounded up CHF 43.50
Target price: CHF 12.38 ÷ 0.30 = CHF 41.27 net, × 1.081 = CHF 44.61, rounded up CHF 45.00
Cross-check: CHF 45.00 ÷ 1.081 = CHF 41.63 net, food cost percentage 12.38 ÷ 41.63 = 29.7%
Prices are rounded up, in the example to the next 50 centimes, because a price rounded down would fall below exactly the bound it is meant to keep. For the three dishes above the target:
| Dish | Menu price before | Food cost (CHF) new | Floor price | Food cost percentage there | Target price | Food cost percentage there |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zurich-style sliced veal with rösti | CHF 42.00 | CHF 12.38 | CHF 43.50 | 30.8% | CHF 45.00 | 29.7% |
| Veal escalope with chips | CHF 39.50 | CHF 11.60 | CHF 41.00 | 30.6% | CHF 42.00 | 29.9% |
| Perch fillets with boiled potatoes | CHF 39.00 | CHF 11.92 | CHF 40.50 | 31.8% | CHF 43.00 | 30.0% |
The floor price keeps the francs per plate and nothing more: if wages, rent or energy go up too, it is not enough. In this example the target price lies above it, because all three dishes sat just under 30% before. For a dish that was far below the target and became much more expensive, it is the other way round, and the target price would bring in less per plate than before. If you want to give up neither francs per plate nor percentage, take the higher of the two prices; which price goes on the menu is, in the end, also up to the market.
The other seven dishes stay below 30% with the new purchase prices. Four of them bring in a little less per plate than before, between CHF 0.03 and CHF 0.12; whether to adjust them too is the business’s decision.
If only purchase prices go up, raising every price by the same percentage would be simpler, but it would also hit the lamb’s lettuce, the cordon bleu and the curry, whose food cost has not moved, and it would have to be high enough to cover the perch fillets.
Do you have to announce a price increase?
On the legal quotations in this article. Swiss law on price display is published in German, French and Italian. There is no official English version of the ordinance quoted here, so every passage from it below is an unofficial working translation provided for information only, and the ordinance keeps its German abbreviation, PBV. The SECO’s answers quoted below are our translation as well. The binding texts are the German, French and Italian versions; the German one is linked in the sources at the end.
Not under the Swiss price display ordinance. It requires something else: in the hospitality sector, “the price actually payable in Swiss francs must always be stated with the offer” (Art. 10 para. 1 PBV). If the new price applies from 1 January, it is on the menu from 1 January.
There is no period during which you may keep the old menu for your own increase. The three months in the PBV belong to a different case: “If the VAT rate changes, the price display must be adjusted within three months of the change coming into force” (Art. 10 para. 3). For that period, it requires a clearly visible notice to guests. Neither applies to a business’s own price increase.
So switch the menu and the till on the same day. If the till already charges the new price while the old menu is still on the table, the menu no longer shows the price actually payable.
What has already been agreed with a guest, such as a quote for a banquet in February, is a different matter from the menu; what goes into a quote so that it holds is in the article on quoting a catering job. If you announce the increase anyway, you do it for your guests.
What is not allowed on the new menu?
A surcharge instead of a higher price, prices nobody can read, and old prices elsewhere.
- An inflation, energy or service surcharge as a separate line. Under Art. 10 para. 2 PBV, “non-optional surcharges of any kind, in particular for reservation, service or handling” must be included in the price. Asked whether an energy surcharge may appear as a separate line on the price list, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) answers no in its FAQ on price display: “This price must be the final price and must therefore include all non-optional surcharges.” If you want to pass on higher costs, build them into the price of the dishes.
- Prices nobody can read. Whether the menu is reprinted, stickered over or corrected by hand: price lists must be “easily accessible and clearly legible” (Art. 11 para. 1).
- Old prices elsewhere. Advertising follows the same rule as the menu: “If prices are stated in advertising …, the prices actually payable must be given” (Art. 13 para. 1). According to the SECO, there is no general duty to show prices online; but if you take orders online, the prices actually payable must be shown there. The simplest is to change every price on the same day, on the menu, the board, the display case, the PDF on the website and a delivery platform, so that no old price is left anywhere.
How do you write a price increase notice for your guests?
Briefly, with the date from which the new prices apply, and with a reason only if it is true. That means a notice before the changeover day, one line on the current menu and one on the new one. Replace the fields in square brackets; keep the sentence with the reason only if the ingredients alone are the reason, not wages, rent or energy as well.
New prices from [1 January 2027]
Dear guests,
From [1 January 2027] our prices change. [We have adjusted prices only where the ingredients now cost us more.] Up to and including [31 December 2026], the current menu applies.
Thank you for your loyalty. We look forward to your next visit.
[Name of the business]
Current menu: Prices change from [1 January 2027].
New menu: Prices in CHF, valid from [1 January 2027].
What the texts deliberately leave out: a percentage; VAT or a law as the reason, because the increase is the business’s own decision; and “incl. VAT”, which according to the SECO the PBV does not require and which would be wrong for a business that is not VAT-registered. And the staff know the text and the date before the guests do, because the questions come at the table.
For guests who speak other languages, the same in German, French and Italian:
Neue Preise ab [1. Januar 2027]
Liebe Gäste
Ab dem [1. Januar 2027] gelten bei uns neue Preise. [Wir haben die Preise nur dort angepasst, wo uns die Zutaten mehr kosten.] Bis und mit [31. Dezember 2026] gilt die bisherige Karte.
Herzlichen Dank für Ihre Treue. Wir freuen uns auf Ihren nächsten Besuch.
[Name des Betriebs]
Bisherige Karte: Ab [1. Januar 2027] gelten neue Preise.
Neue Karte: Preise in CHF, gültig ab [1. Januar 2027].
Nouveaux prix dès le [1er janvier 2027]
Chère clientèle,
Dès le [1er janvier 2027], nos prix changent. [Nous n’avons adapté les prix que là où les ingrédients nous coûtent davantage.] Jusqu’au [31 décembre 2026] inclus, la carte actuelle reste valable.
Merci de votre fidélité. Nous nous réjouissons de votre prochaine visite.
[Nom de l’établissement]
Carte actuelle: Dès le [1er janvier 2027], nos prix changent.
Nouvelle carte: Prix en CHF, valables dès le [1er janvier 2027].
Nuovi prezzi dal [1° gennaio 2027]
Gentili ospiti,
dal [1° gennaio 2027] i nostri prezzi cambiano. [Abbiamo adeguato i prezzi solo dove gli ingredienti ci costano di più.] Fino al [31 dicembre 2026] compreso vale il menu attuale.
Grazie per la vostra fedeltà. Vi aspettiamo con piacere.
[Nome del locale]
Menu attuale: Dal [1° gennaio 2027] i prezzi cambiano.
Nuovo menu: Prezzi in CHF, validi dal [1° gennaio 2027].
What does Trolevo calculate when prices go up, and what not?
Trolevo works out a dish’s food cost from its ingredients and sub-recipes. Which dishes lie above the target with the new purchase prices, which price goes on the menu and what you tell your guests stays with the business.
The button “Find recipes using this ingredient” lists the recipes that use an ingredient directly, without the dishes that contain it through a sub-recipe. When a new price is saved, the app names all the recipes affected, including those dishes.
The app keeps one selling price per recipe, with no VAT rate and no channel. It shows what share of the selling price the food cost and the labour cost take and what is left, worked out on the price as entered, without taking VAT off. It does not show which dishes lie above a target. It does not print a menu with prices, and you write the notice yourself. The free food cost calculator works out the target price of a single dish, net and gross.
When you save a new ingredient price in Trolevo, the app recalculates, as part of that save, the food cost of every recipe that uses the ingredient, directly or through a sub-recipe. This helps keep the costing current; the pricing decision stays with the business.
Trolevo is in development – get early access.
Sources
- PBV – Verordnung über die Bekanntgabe von Preisen (Swiss ordinance on price display), SR 942.211, Art. 10, 11 and 13 (German original; there is no English version)
- SECO – FAQ zur Preisbekanntgabe (FAQ on price display) (in German, French and Italian)
- SECO – Preisbekanntgabe und Werbung für die Hotellerie und die Restauration (price display and advertising for hotels and restaurants, PDF)
- VAT Act – Federal Act on Value Added Tax, SR 641.20, Art. 25 (German original; the English text is a translation for information only and has no legal force)
- FTA – VAT rates
The figures in the examples are illustrative and not an industry statistic. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. The binding texts are the statutes (PBV, MWSTG), in German, French and Italian, and the information provided by the competent cantonal offices and the Federal Tax Administration (FTA).