Your household grocery bill is skyrocketing. Here's how to keep it in check

It's not just you. Groceries are more expensive than usual.

Meat costs more than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic. Imported fruits and vegetables are rising in price due to supply chain snags. The cost of dairy products has surged.

Across Canada, food inflation has consumers feeling sticker shock when they reach the checkout aisles.

Why the higher prices? A combination of strong demand, supply chain problems, worker shortages and lousy weather, experts say.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem has warned that inflation, which grew to 4.4 per cent in September and could reach five per cent by year's end, will last longer than expected.

The cost of chicken rose 10.3 per cent in September, while beef was up 13 per cent, according to Statistics Canada. The price of bacon, up 20 per cent, saw the largest year-over-year gain since January 2015. And dairy products including butter and cheese are up 5.1 per cent.

Sylvain Charlebois, a professor at Dalhousie University who researches food distribution and policy, says that Statistics Canada under-reports its food inflation figures. From an independent study he helped conduct through Dalhousie's Agri-Food Analytics Lab, experts found that butter prices are actually up 35 per cent year over year, beef is up more than 50 per cent, and peanut butter, which has stayed at roughly the same price for two decades, is now up three per cent.

Last week, the Star reported that imported produce is taking between one and two weeks longer to arrive in Ontario due to backlogs at U.S. shipping ports and a shortage of truck drivers to deliver the goods across the Canadian border.

As those delays creep into the winter months, when Canadian grocers increasingly rely on produce from countries with warmer climates, Ontario wholesalers have warned that consumers could see a rise in produce costs, which were cheaper than usual during the summer.

Simon Somogyi, a professor at the University of Guelph who researches food policy and consumer behaviour, says shoppers can avoid high food prices by bulking up on meats and seafood or turning to alternative products.

Big box stores like Walmart and Costco are likely to have cheaper options" than grocers like Loblaws, Metro or Sobeys, he says. Buying family-sized packs and storing them in a freezer can save you the cost of several trips to the store.

We're also seeing a lot of interest in alternative proteins," Somogyi said. Chickpeas, lentils and barley can offer a reliable source of protein at a fraction of the cost of meats. He's even noticed a growing interest in plant-based eggs, which extract proteins from legumes (peas and mung beans) and resemble scrambled eggs.

They're actually pretty close in flavour to what the real thing tastes like," he said.

Ambitious shoppers can avoid the grocery aisles entirely. Startups like Remarkable Rejects, a GTA-based business, offers discounted vegetables grocery stores won't accept because of their shape or size. The produce is perfectly good, and acquired directly from Ontario farmers.

It helps to establish budgets and plan meals in advance, too, experts say. Don't buy what you don't need, and don't sweep the grocery aisles on an empty stomach.

Food researchers have found that more Canadians are checking weekly flyers, using coupons, buying grocery-store brands and seeking out food that has been reduced in price because it's close to the expiry date.

These are among the many ways to cut costs, Charlebois said.

The big one that I was surprised about is that 40 per cent of Canadians are actually looking for discounted food products. More and more Canadians are looking for these Enjoy Tonight' discounts," he recently told The Canadian Press.

Every section of the grocery store is impacted by inflation; there's not one single section that has not been impacted. Typically, you would talk about cauliflower or beef or tomatoes. This year it's different products across the board."

Jacob Lorinc is a Toronto-based reporter covering business for the Star. Reach him via email: jlorinc@thestar.ca