Contents
- Grocery price inflation statistics: Latest September 2026 CPI changes
- Grocery price inflation statistics: Meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy
- Grocery price inflation statistics: Produce and other food-at-home categories
- Grocery price inflation statistics: 2025 annual category changes
- Grocery price inflation statistics: Long-run food-at-home price trends
- Grocery price inflation statistics: Grocery spending and household context
- Sources
Grocery price inflation statistics: Latest September 2026 CPI changes
The U.S. food-at-home Consumer Price Index (CPI), which covers grocery store or supermarket food purchases, increased 0.1% from August to September 2026. Over the 12 months ending in September, it was 1.8% higher than in September 2025. These are different comparisons: the first describes a single month, while the second compares the index with its level a year earlier. The reported CPI is not seasonally adjusted. Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
Price direction also differed across the 15 food-at-home categories ERS examines. From August to September 2026, average prices increased in 11 categories, were unchanged in 1, and decreased in 3. The overall monthly increase therefore does not mean that every grocery category rose. Nor does the category count show how much each category contributed to the overall index; it records only the direction of average price movement. Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
| U.S. food-at-home CPI measure | Reported change | Comparison period |
|---|---|---|
| Overall food-at-home CPI | +0.1% | August to September 2026 |
| Overall food-at-home CPI | +1.8% | September 2025 to September 2026 |
Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
Grocery price inflation statistics: Meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy
Meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy showed contrasting movements in September 2026. Beef and veal prices fell 1.3% from August to September, yet remained 3.5% higher than in September 2025. Pork prices were 0.7% lower than a year earlier. Poultry prices rose 0.4% in the month and were 1.1% higher over the 12 months ending in September. Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
Egg prices rose 1.0% from August to September 2026, while remaining 20.6% below their level in September 2025. That recent year-over-year decline sits alongside a different annual measure: retail egg prices averaged 21.9% higher in 2025 than in 2024. The annual average compares the full years, whereas the September comparison concerns 2 particular months 12 months apart. Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
Retail dairy prices decreased 0.9% from August to September 2026 and were 0.7% lower than in September 2025. Together, these figures show why a monthly movement and a 12-month comparison should be read separately: they measure changes over different windows and can tell different parts of the category’s price story. Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
| Category | August–September 2026 | September 2025–September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Beef and veal | −1.3% | +3.5% |
| Pork | — | −0.7% |
| Poultry | +0.4% | +1.1% |
| Eggs | +1.0% | −20.6% |
| Dairy | −0.9% | −0.7% |
Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
Grocery price inflation statistics: Produce and other food-at-home categories
Fresh fruit prices rose 2.0% between August and September 2026 and were 4.9% higher than in September 2025. Fresh vegetable prices increased 0.2% over the month and were 2.8% higher year over year. These figures describe retail food-at-home categories, not every individual fruit or vegetable; category averages can differ from the prices shoppers see for particular items. Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
Other measured categories also increased. Sugar and sweets prices rose 0.1% from August to September and were 5.5% above September 2025. Nonalcoholic beverage prices increased 0.9% in the month and were 3.8% higher over the year ending September 2026. In each case, the monthly change is smaller in scope than the year-over-year comparison; neither alone describes a household’s total grocery bill. Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
| Food-at-home category | August–September 2026 | September 2025–September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh fruit | +2.0% | +4.9% |
| Fresh vegetables | +0.2% | +2.8% |
| Sugar and sweets | +0.1% | +5.5% |
| Nonalcoholic beverages | +0.9% | +3.8% |
Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings
Grocery price inflation statistics: 2025 annual category changes
Average annual food-at-home prices were 2.3% higher in 2025 than in 2024. ERS described that increase as below the 2.6% annual historical rate for 2006–2025. This is an annual average CPI comparison, not a monthly reading or a measure of grocery expenditures. Category movements varied around the overall result. Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
Beef and veal prices increased 11.6% in 2025. Sugar and sweets rose 5.1%, and nonalcoholic beverages increased 3.8%. By comparison, dairy products rose 0.8%, against a 2.1% annual average growth rate over 2006–2025. Cereal and bakery product prices increased 1.0% in 2025, compared with a 2.8% annual average growth rate over the past 20 years. Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
Some categories recorded annual average declines: fats and oils prices fell 0.8% in 2025, and fresh vegetable prices fell 0.4%. These declines can coexist with the overall food-at-home increase because the aggregate CPI covers a broader set of categories. The category figures do not establish how much each movement contributed to the total. Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
| Category | 2025 annual average price change |
|---|---|
| Food at home, overall | +2.3% |
| Beef and veal | +11.6% |
| Sugar and sweets | +5.1% |
| Nonalcoholic beverages | +3.8% |
| Dairy products | +0.8% |
| Cereal and bakery products | +1.0% |
| Fats and oils | −0.8% |
| Fresh vegetables | −0.4% |
Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
Grocery price inflation statistics: Long-run food-at-home price trends
The 2.3% food-at-home price increase in 2025 was below the 2.6% annual historical rate reported for 2006–2025. A separate ERS comparison found that the all-food CPI rose an average of 2.6% per year in 2024 and 2025, while the all-items CPI grew 2.8% per year over the same 2-year period. “All food” and “food at home” are distinct measures, so these rates should not be treated as interchangeable grocery inflation readings. Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
Longer-run figures also put the sharper movements in context. Since 2006, the largest change in the annual average CPI for food occurred in 2022, when food prices rose 9.9%. Across 2006–2025, annual food prices changed by more than 5% in only 3 years. These facts describe the frequency of large annual changes and the peak reported year; they do not predict how prices will move in a future period. Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
Price indexes track changes in prices over time, while expenditure totals and income shares describe how much is spent. The annual category CPI changes above therefore cannot by themselves show how much a household paid, which products it bought, or how its spending changed. The available food-at-home measures also have defined boundaries: ERS describes this CPI as grocery store or supermarket food purchases. Source: USDA ERS, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings; Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
Grocery price inflation statistics: Grocery spending and household context
ERS reported $1.10 trillion in food-at-home expenditures in 2025, measured in inflation-adjusted dollars. This total covers spending across consumers, businesses, and government entities. It is an expenditure measure, not a CPI increase or a typical household’s grocery budget. Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
U.S. consumers spent 4.8% of disposable personal income on food at home in 2025. That share uses disposable personal income as its denominator. It should be distinguished from household food spending as a share of before-tax income, which ERS reports by income quintile for 2024. Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
In 2024, households in the lowest income quintile spent an average of $5,498 on food, equal to 33.0% of before-tax income. Middle-income-quintile households spent an average of $9,097, or 12.2% of before-tax income. Households in the highest income quintile spent an average of $16,989, equal to 6.4% of before-tax income. These amounts are household food spending, not grocery-only expenditures, and the income shares use before-tax income. Source: USDA ERS, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
The figures offer distinct views of food costs: CPI tracks price changes, aggregate expenditure totals measure spending across several kinds of buyers, and quintile data report household food spending relative to before-tax income. Their populations, time periods, and denominators differ, so each is useful for a different question about grocery prices and household context.