Methodology

What the data set contains

• 63 ingredients, each with macros per 100 g / 100 ml / piece and a price for every supermarket we cover.
• 7 countries, 21 supermarket price tiers in total — typically one discounter, one mainstream chain and one premium chain per country.
• 13 costed dishes, each with a fixed ingredient list, cooking method, cook time and a typical local delivery price.
• Residential utility tariffs per country: electricity and gas per kWh, water per litre, and used-oil disposal per litre.

Where the prices come from

• Chain weekly flyers
• Government food price indexes (US BLS, Statistics Korea, INE, ONS, StatCan, ABS, INEGI)
• Manual in-store spot checks

Prices are quarterly averages, not a live scrape. For each ingredient and chain we take the standard shelf price of the most commonly stocked format, exclude loyalty-card and multibuy promotions, convert it to a unit price per 100 g / 100 ml / piece, and average across the quarter. That makes the numbers stable enough to compare between countries, and deliberately unsuitable as a quote for a specific basket on a specific day.

How a meal cost is computed

Total cost = ingredient cost + utility cost

Ingredient cost for each line is unit price × (amount used ÷ unit size). A 200 g portion of an ingredient priced per 100 g costs twice the unit price. Items sold per piece (eggs, tortillas, buns, limes) are multiplied by the piece count.

Utility cost is (electricity kWh/min × minutes × electricity tariff) + (gas kWh/min × minutes × gas tariff) + (water litres × water tariff) + (frying oil litres × disposal cost). Each cooking method carries its own per-minute energy draw, session water use and oil volume; the country supplies the four tariffs.

Cost per serving is total cost divided by the serving count you set. Cost per gram of protein is total cost divided by total protein across all ingredients, and cost per 100 kcal is the same idea against calories.

The delivery comparison

Delivery prices are typical *checkout* prices per portion in each country — the in-app menu price including the restaurant's platform markup, plus the service fee and delivery fee, with tip excluded. Comparing a home-cooked cost against an in-app menu price alone would flatter delivery by 30-50%.

The verdict band is the ratio of home cost per serving to the delivery price per portion: at or under 50% is the top band, 50-90% is a clear saving, 90-110% is a wash, and above that home cooking is losing.

Cross-country normalisation

The MealMaxx score converts each result to USD using fixed quarterly FX rates before scoring, so a dish is not rewarded or punished for the nominal scale of its currency. Displayed prices always stay in local currency.

What the numbers do not include

• Your time. No labour cost is applied. For many people this is the variable that decides the question, and it is deliberately left to you.
• Waste. Prices are per usable unit and no automatic waste factor is added. If you are budgeting rather than comparing, add roughly 10%.
• Equipment and standing charges. Pans, appliance depreciation and fixed utility standing charges are excluded.
• Regional variation inside a country. One national average per chain; a capital-city store and a rural store can differ by 10-20%.
• Promotions and loyalty pricing. Excluded by design, because they are not reproducible.

Corrections

If a price looks wrong for your store, it probably is — averages are averages. Send the item, the chain, the city and the shelf price via the contact page and it goes into the next quarterly refresh.