Food Price History

Food groups like "dairy" or "cereals and bakery" are thousands of products, so the government tracks them as a price index rather than one dollar price. "% change" shows how much the group's prices rose or fell since the start of the time range you picked. For single foods such as eggs, flour or butter, switch to Store prices to see average U.S. prices in dollars.

The 12-month average smooths out seasonal ups and downs (on the 1-year view it is a 3-month average), so the real direction is easier to see. The trend line is the steady yearly rate that best fits the months you are looking at; the number in the legend tells you how fast prices rose or fell per year on average.

It is the change from the same month a year earlier, the way inflation is usually reported in the news. When the line is above zero, prices are higher than a year before; when it falls, prices are still rising but more slowly, unless it drops below zero.

Producer price indexes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics track what farms, mills, dairies and bakeries are paid, and USDA reports bulk prices for butter, sugar, milk powder and eggs. Changes there often show up in store prices months later. They are a different level of the market and are never mixed with store prices.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish data for October 2025 because of the 2025 lapse in federal appropriations. We leave that month empty instead of guessing, so the lines break there.

Once a month, after the government's monthly releases. The date at the top of the page shows the latest month included.