Prices for foods typically consumed at summer picnics and cookouts have risen from last year, according to an informal survey of food prices conducted by Indiana Farm Bureau volunteers. The summer cookout market basket includes enough food to feed 10 people. Items include prepared potato salad, ground round, hot dogs, baked beans, condiments, American cheese, hot dog and hamburger buns, soda and chips.
For 2012, the market basket survey’s average total for these 11 items was about $ 32.40 (or about $3.25 per person), up $1.33 from the 2011 total, and approaching the record of $33.21 recorded in 2009. Totals from the 16 volunteer shoppers who participated in the survey ranged as low as $25.97 and as high as $46.65 for the 11 items. “Although no one likes an increase in any price, we can understand that supply and demand are still the main reasons for it,” said Isabella Chism, IFB 2nd vice president and chair of the Indiana Women’s Leadership Committee, which is in charge of the market-basket survey program. “As we celebrate the freedoms that so many have defended, we can also celebrate the fact that we can confidently feed our children the foods the American farmer grows.”
Eight of the 11 items included in the survey showed price increases compared to last year’s data. The largest increases were in the meat category, with the cost of 2 pounds of ground round increasing 30 cents to a total of $7.10. A 10-pack of hotdogs also increased 30 cents to a total of $2.72. Also showing increases were a 8-count bag of hamburger buns, up 25 cents to a total of $1.60; hotdog buns, up 20 cents to a total of $1.58; prepared potato salad, up 20 cents to a total of $5.22 for a 3-pound container; ketchup, up 11 cents for a 24 ounce bottle for a total of $1.39; 2 two-liters of soda, up 10 cents for a total of $1.48; and potato chips, up 6 cents for a total of $5.44 for two 11-oz. bags.
Meat increases were expected, according to AFBF economist John Anderson, who earlier this year predicted global demand of meat to influence retail prices in the U.S. Decreases were recorded in three of the categories including a 16-slice pack of American cheese, which dropped 7 cents to $2.55; a 28-ounce can of baked beans, dropping 6 cents to $2.04; and an 8-ounce container of mustard, which dropped 6 cents to $1.28.
This is the fourth year IFB has supplemented its regular quarterly informal “market-basket” survey with a special survey geared toward those summer cookout and picnic foods. Like the quarterly surveys, the cookout market basket isn’t a true survey but is instead a snapshot of grocery prices throughout the state. Indiana is one of only a few state Farm Bureaus that are doing a cookout market basket, Chism said. She added that shoppers need to remember something else as they enjoy their summer activities, and that’s food safety. “It is important that you cook your foods, especially meat, to the correct temperatures,” she added.
Source: Indiana farm Bureau