Report: Family of 4 may pay $6.75 more for food weekly in 2013
The Food Institute reports that food inflation, including the impact of the severe drought in the Midwest, will cost a family of four $351.12 more in food spending in 2013 than in 2012 - approximately $6.75 a week. Food-at-home spending will increase about $4.00 a week, and away-from-home spending by about $2.50, according to The Food Institute. These figures are only slightly more than the 2.5% to 3.5% increase projected by USDA for all of this year. The numbers do not add completely due to rounding.
The cost is calculated by the Upper Saddle River, N.J.-based trade association using USDA's latest food price projections for 2013, which indicate prices for food-at-home will increase as much as 4.0% next year, with food away-from-home prices projected to rise as much as 3.5%. Food Institute members can find the complete breakdown by category at www.foodinstitute.com/outlook.cfm.
The Food Institute combined the recent USDA figures for 2013 with its annual book, the Demographics of Consumer Food Spending, which relies on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to forecast 2013 household spending in this category.