95%
Chicken breast yields 95%
You buy chicken breast by its whole weight, but you only plate 95% of it. That 5% loss is real cost the invoice never shows — here's the math.
Yield is the fraction of an ingredient that actually reaches the plate after you clean, peel, and trim it. What you pay is the AP (as-purchased) price; what it costs on the plate is the EP (edible-portion) price.
Bone, skin, and trim are the loss. A whole bird costs less per pound but yields far less usable meat than a portioned cut.
Say your invoice shows $3.80 per lb of chicken breast (an example AP price).
At 95% yield, your real cost is $4.00 per lb EP — because $3.80 ÷ 0.95 = $4.00.
AP price is illustrative; the EP figure is computed (AP ÷ yield). Use your real invoice price below.Yield breakdown
| As-purchased (AP) | 100% |
|---|---|
| Edible portion (EP) | 95% |
| Lost to trim | 5% |
Source: CIA Standard Yield Tables.
Common questions
What is the yield of chicken breast?
Chicken breast typically yields 95% edible portion of its as-purchased weight, per the CIA Standard Yield Tables.
How much chicken breast is lost to trim?
About 5% of the as-purchased weight is lost to cleaning, peeling, and trimming before it reaches the plate.
How do you calculate the edible-portion cost of chicken breast?
Divide the as-purchased price by the yield: EP cost = AP price ÷ 0.95. At 95% yield, the trim makes your real plated cost meaningfully higher than the invoice price.
Market readconfidence medium · as of 2026-07-06
About $1.05–$1.49/lb (wholesale reference), down -23.8% over the recent window.
At today's reference (~$1.25/lb) and the 95% yield, your edible lb runs about $1.32.
Higher than 2 of its last 16 weekly reads — near the bottom of its recent range.
Watch. Up on paper, but for this item the move is not yet distinguishable from its own week-to-week noise once we account for every ingredient we check at once — we are holding this read as context until the next print.
Enter your price to compare it against this public wholesale reference.
One pricing methodology backs the level.
Sources · 3
Sourced: CIA Standard Yield Tables, via the Plate Cost Calculator · what yield means · edible portion