How Much Food Per Person?

Quantities per person are never a single number, because they depend on how many other things are on the plate. 200 g of meat per person is generous with three sides and mean with none. So decide the shape of the meal first (main plus how many sides) and let the quantities follow.

For a whole meal in one go: Portion Calculator

The single biggest mistake is buying by finished portion when the weight on the label includes bone. A whole chicken, a bone-in leg of lamb and a whole fish all lose a large share of their weight to bone, skin and shrinkage, while a boneless fillet barely does.

Meat Per Person handles joints and cuts, Chicken Per Person deals with whole birds specifically, and Fish Per Person covers fillets and whole fish, which behave quite differently from each other.

Both are usually judged dry, and both roughly triple in weight once cooked, which is why eyeballing them from the cooked amount goes so badly wrong. A main-course portion of dry pasta is far smaller than most people pour.

Pasta Per Person and Rice Per Person both distinguish between a main and a side, which is where most of the difference sits.

Potatoes vary enormously by preparation: roast potatoes shrink and get eaten in quantity, mash goes further, and boiled new potatoes sit somewhere in between. Vegetables depend on how many different ones you are serving. Three vegetables means less of each, not three full portions.

Potatoes Per Person and Vegetables Per Person.

Children generally eat between a third and two thirds of an adult portion depending on age, and eat far less of the vegetables than you hope.

Teenagers and big eaters can comfortably eat one and a half adult portions. If you know your guests, adjust rather than averaging.

Standing-up food (buffets, barbecues, canapés) works differently again, because people graze across everything on offer: Buffet Quantities.

Cooking extra on purpose is usually cheaper and easier than cooking again tomorrow, but decide it in advance and buy for it, rather than hoping some survives. Add roughly a 50% uplift on the main component for one extra meal.

Then store what is left properly, which is a food safety matter rather than a quantity one . See the guide on storing and reheating leftovers below.

Cooking for the biggest appetite in the room. Cook for the average and put extra bread or potatoes on the table.

Forgetting starters and pudding. A three-course meal needs a smaller main.

Buying joints by portion weight. Bone and shrinkage first, portions second.