While inflation may be moderating and food prices have come down a bit, your July 4th barbecue is still going to be more expensive than ever. TheStreet’s Conway Gittens breaks down just how much your favorite traditional BBQ foods will run you for this year’s celebration.
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Full Video Transcript Below:
CONWAY GITTENS: The July Fourth holiday is a time for family, friends, fireworks, and food, and this year, that food bill is expected to be 5 percent higher than last year.
The American Farm Bureau Federation did its annual price check on the most common items served at a July Fourth BBQ. And here is what it found: the average bill for a BBQ of 10 people is expected to be at a record high of $71.22 in 2024, up from $67.73 in 2023. More startling, prices for the same basket of goods have soared 30 percent since 2019.
Meat is the star at any BBQ, and that’s where you’ll see the heftiest price hikes. Two pounds of ground beef ring up at $12.77, that’s 11 percent more than last year. One package of hamburger buns costs $2.41, up 7 percent. Want a cheeseburger? One pound of cheese costs $3.57, a rise of 1 percent. If you’re looking for other meat options, three pounds of pork chops cost $15.49 this year, a gain of 8 percent. Good news for chicken lovers, however. Two pounds of chicken breasts now cost $7.83, that’s down 4 percent from last summer.
More on Food Inflation:
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Now to the fixings: the price for a 32-ounce can of pork and beans is up 2 percent this year, but making homemade potato salad is now 4 percent cheaper than it was a year ago.
Snacks are more costly too. The price tag for a 1/2 gallon of ice cream is up by 7 percent, while a 16-ounce bag of potato chips costs 8 percent more than last year.
But the biggest sticker shock is not on your plate, it’s in your cup. The price for 2-1/2 quarts of lemonade comes in at $4.19, that’s a whopping 12 percent surge from last year’s BBQ. The price spike is the result of a bacterial infection that has damaged lemon crops.
While this survey confirms you are paying more for groceries on average, food inflation is nowhere near as bad as it has been. Government data for May showed prices for food at home rose only 1 percent from a year ago, that’s way down from 13.5 percent in August 2022.
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