Food Prices, Expenditures & Costs
ERS develops and monitors indicators of individual, household, and market-level food consumption, prices, expenditures, food marketing costs, and farm-to-retail price spreads. Food choices are influenced by prices and income as well as other factors. ERS has acquired proprietary household and retail scanner data from market research firm Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) for use in food economics research.
ERS produces key data products and conducts research on:
- Scanner Data: Food economics, including the use of proprietary household scanner data to examine household food-at-home expenditures. See Using Scanner Data,
- Fruit and Vegetable Prices: The cost of fruits and vegetables, estimating average prices for over 150 commonly consumed fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, using 2013 and 2016 retail scanner data from Information Resources, Inc. (IRI). See Fruit and Vegetable Prices,
- Food Expenditure Series: Food expenditures which are calculated by estimating current sales or receipts by each type of store that sells food, allowing the analysis of changes in American food consumption patterns. For an interactive data visualization, see Interactive Chart: Food Expenditures,
- Food Dollar Series: The food dollar series which measures annual expenditures by U.S. consumers on domestically produced food. This data series is composed of three primary series—the marketing bill series, the industry group series, and the primary factor series—that shed light on different aspects of the food supply chain. See Food Dollar Series, and
- Price Spreads from Farm to Consumer: Price spreads which compares the prices paid by consumers for food with the prices received by farmers for their corresponding commodities. For an interactive data visualization, see Interactive Chart: Price Spreads and Food Markets.
