Grocery prices jump 33% in biggest surge in 50 years

The price of groceries in U.S. cities has climbed 33% since the beginning of 2019 — the biggest increase in half a century — forcing millions of Americans to rethink what they buy and how they feed their families, according to a sweeping AP News report published July 25.

The contrast with the recent past is stark. During the seven and a half years before 2019, the cost of food purchased for use at home rose only 6.4%. Since then, the same basic trip to the grocery store has become roughly one-third more expensive.

The latest federal figures show that the pressure has not ended. The food-at-home index rose another 0.2% in June and stood 2.7% higher than it had a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fruit and vegetable prices increased 5.3% over the year, while the broader cost of living rose 3.5%.

That distinction helps explain the disconnect between slower inflation and the experience of families at the checkout line. A lower inflation rate means prices are rising more slowly; it does not undo the accumulated increase that has already taken place.

The historic run-up had no single cause. Pandemic-era supply disruptions raised labor and transportation costs. Droughts, hurricanes, bird flu, and a shrinking cattle herd reduced supplies, while Russia’s war in Ukraine disrupted energy and fertilizer markets. Tariffs have added costs to imported products including coffee, tomatoes, and chocolate, and renewed conflict in the Middle East has pushed fuel and shipping costs higher again.

The worst spike came in 2022, when overall food prices rose 9.9% — the fastest annual increase since 1979 — and grocery prices surged 11.4%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Price Outlook. Food-at-home inflation slowed to 5% in 2023, 1.2% in 2024, and 2.3% in 2025, but prices continued moving upward from an already elevated level.

The consequences are visible at family dinner tables.

In Cleveland, Texas, 60-year-old Ada Torres lives with her adult daughter and three grandchildren. Her daughter, who works for a mobile car-washing service, is the household’s main provider, and her income declines during the rainy season. Torres told AP News that the family can sometimes afford only one full meal a day.

“Prices are sky-high,” Torres said. “One hundred dollars’ worth of groceries these days is nothing.”

The family has replaced name-brand beans and tomato sauce with store brands and largely stopped buying beef, once a staple in meals such as lasagna, fajitas, and steak with plantain chips. Chicken and cold cuts now supply most of the household’s meat.

Beef has become one of the clearest examples of the squeeze. A pound of ground beef reached an average of $6.82 in June, up 79% since the beginning of 2019, according to the AP’s analysis of federal data. The USDA reported that beef and veal prices were 11.8% higher this June than a year earlier and said the U.S. cattle herd had fallen to its lowest level in 75 years.

The department now expects beef and veal prices to rise 10.7% during 2026. Fresh vegetables are projected to increase 6.8%, with June prices for fresh lettuce already 32.1% higher than a year earlier and tomato prices up 19.5%.

Other families described building weekly menus around digital coupons, visiting several stores in search of lower prices, replacing familiar products with generic brands, and eliminating treats altogether.

Average weekly earnings for full-time workers have risen slightly faster than grocery prices since 2019, AP News noted. But that comparison does not capture the uneven burden on households or simultaneous increases in rent, electricity, transportation, and other necessities.

Americans spent an average of 12.9% of their pretax income on food at home and in restaurants in 2024. Among the lowest-earning fifth of households, however, food consumed 33% of pretax income.

The strain has also become a political liability ahead of the midterm elections. As Zeale News previously reported, a March Quinnipiac University poll found health care costs, food prices, and rent were the top financial concerns for American families amid weak public ratings for President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy.

Trump told Congress in February that inflation was “plummeting” and incomes were rising, Zeale News reported. His administration has blamed much of the accumulated price shock on former President Joe Biden and has pursued investigations of possible price-fixing in the food supply chain. In February, the President also ordered measures intended to increase the beef supply while supporting U.S. ranchers.

The USDA nevertheless expects the overall cost of food to rise another 3.1% in 2026. Its first forecast for 2027 predicts a further 2.9% increase in grocery prices, although the department cautions that projections that far ahead carry substantial uncertainty.

For families already skipping favorite foods, stretching one meal into several, or relying on relatives and food banks, even slower price growth would leave the central problem intact: lower inflation does not restore the grocery bill Americans remember from before the pandemic.