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An employee prepares an order of ground beef for a customer at an Oakland butcher shop in 2020. Ground beef prices are up nearly 19% compared to this time last year.<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Breaking out the barbecue this weekend? The cost to grill up a few burgers might surprise you.<\/p>\n
Since around this time last year, ground beef is up 18.9%. A block of cheddar is up 5%. And if you want lettuce on there, that\u2019s 7.5% more expensive. A tomato will set you back a full 50% more than it did a year ago. And if someone wants a cup of coffee, that\u2019s going to cost 29% more.<\/p>\n
These numbers are from the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Every month, the government agency measures prices for a preselected group of goods and publishes how they\u2019ve changed compared to recent months and years. The report for April 2026 indicates an overall 2.9% year-over-year increase in the \u201cfood at home\u201d category, amid overall yearly inflation of 3.8%.<\/p>\n
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Overall, grocery prices are rising at the fastest pace we\u2019ve seen in about four years.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not all bad news: After weathering the avian influenza outbreak, egg prices are down 56%<\/a> compared to a year ago. If you want to put American cheese or bacon on your burger, those are down 6% and 2.6%, respectively. Buttering your bun before it hits the grill will be nearly 12% less expensive than last year\u2019s barbecue.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Inflation is nowhere near as bad as when it reached double digits in 2022. But the big-picture rise is still coming in above the 2% target economists like to see. It\u2019s a sign that the Iran war, tariffs and other policy choices by the Trump administration are impacting the cost of living for just about everyone.<\/p>\n \u2022 Read more: The best way to save money as grocery prices spike? Make these easy shopping swaps<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Also: This San Francisco grocery store is consistently the cheapest<\/a><\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Inflation spotlight: Here\u2019s how much the $1.50 Costco hot dog deal would cost if it kept up with inflation<\/a><\/p>\n Bell peppers and other produce are seen at the Casa Guadalupe supermarket in San Francisco in 2025. The higher cost of some grocery staples can be attributed to Trump policies.<\/p>\n Santiago Mejia\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n How tariffs and the war in Iran play out on grocery shelves<\/p>\n Often, the president has surprisingly little control over kitchen-table issues like grocery and gas prices. The price of eggs began spiking in late fall 2024 and reached a high of more than $8 in March of last year, but experts said Trump didn\u2019t deserve any blame for the continued rise<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 nor credit for the fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Similarly, when gas prices fell last summer, experts said there weren\u2019t specific Trump policies that had made a meaningful impact. In California, for instance, the drop was attributed to refinery repairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n But this year, things are different. Trump\u2019s widespread tariff policy hit many of the countries we rely on for imports, like Mexico, which saw a 17% duty placed on fresh tomatoes<\/a>. The U.S. imports about 70% of its tomato supply, and 90% of that comes from Mexico<\/a>. A third of the coffee we enjoy comes from Brazil, which was subjected to a 40% tariff that was later removed but is still under 50% tariffs for instant coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tariffs on aluminum and steel\u00a0\u2014 currently 50% for all imports of raw materials\u00a0\u2014 are also leading to increases for canned goods, said Nate Rose, the vice president of communications and public affairs at the California Grocers Association.<\/p>\n And the war in Iran has driven up fuel prices: Gasoline costs are up 28.4% year over year, and electricity is up 6.1% nationally, according to BLS data.<\/p>\n Energy costs are food costs, said Daniel Sumner, a professor of agricultural economics at UC Davis. Cleaning, drying, freezing, keeping things cool in transport\u00a0\u2014 \u201call of that is energy intensive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As the Iran war goes on, price climbs are likely to do the same. Wesley Grubbs is an independent design technologist based in Oakland and the creator of Inflatacart, a grocery list app<\/a> that tracks inflation with BLS data. He said because BLS data is based on the previous month, we\u2019re not seeing the full extent of the Iran war\u2019s impact on grocery prices just yet.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really curious to see what we see in the next reports that\u2019ll come out in mid-June,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m expecting a lot of the costs to just keep jumping up.\u201d<\/p>\n Sumner said another impact of the Iran war likely isn\u2019t yet reflected in grocery prices: Fertilizer costs. Many of the raw materials that go into making it travel through the Strait of Hormuz. The produce for sale in the grocery store right now was fertilized before the war began, but those supplies will run out.<\/p>\n \u2022 Read: How much more expensive are your groceries? This app does the inflation math<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n