Skip to content

Monday, Jul 13, 2026

Have food prices doubled in the past 10 years? | Fact brief

J. Craig Anderson, Maine Trust for Local News
no

The federal Consumer Price Index for food, which includes groceries and food purchased away from home, rose from 247.9 in May 2016 to 349 in May 2026. That was an increase of 40.8%.

Food prices rose more slowly before the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset in early 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The largest annual increase came in 2022, when prices rose 9.9%, followed by a 5.8% increase in 2023. Increases slowed to 2.3% in 2024 and 2.9% in 2025.

The index for “food at home,” which measures grocery store prices, rose from 239.4 in May 2016 to 321 in May 2026, an increase of 34.1%.

The index for “food away from home,” which measures restaurant and other prepared-food prices, rose from 262.1 in May 2016 to 394.7 in May 2026, an increase of 50.6%.

Federal agencies do not publish Maine-specific data on food prices.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

See all fact briefs
Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.