Protein hype, food prices soar in 2025

Echoing its data throughout the year, Toast found that menu prices continued to climb in November, often exceeding the current inflation rate of 2.7%.

If you like your (retail) brew steeped, the increase is steep, too, with the median price of cold brew in November up 4.5% YoY, to $5.54, while regular coffee was up 3.5%, to $3.59, per Toast. Burrito prices were up 3% YoY, to $13.43, while burgers also rose 3% YoY to $14.57.

As for the key ingredient in those burgers, despite its consistently high prices at supermarkets, beef sizzled among home cooks this year, according to new data from Tastewise, which tracks factors including social media conversations and online recipe engagement.

Tastewise credited the country’s high-protein craze for beefing up interest. For the first 11 months of 2025, there was an 11.8% YoY increase in mentions of beef on social media and in recipes, and an 11% increase in the beef recipes used by home cooks.

But thanks to high prices and economic challenges, it’s the cheaper cuts that really got cooking, with mentions up for chuck roast (+12.4%), ground beef (+9.6%), and sirloin (+3.1%), and decreases for filet mignon (-6.8%) and ribeye (-4.1%).

Based on its receipts data, rewards app Fetch also had some takes on Americans’ spending in 2025, noting sales of products that promoted protein content on their labels were up over 2024, including protein-hyping cereal (69.8%), granola (45.9%), and dry pasta (35.4%).

But whatever their preferences, many shoppers still fretted about how to pay for their groceries. More than 2 in 3 respondents (67.6%) said that they’re struggling to pay grocery bills because of inflation and rising food prices, according to a survey by Swiftly, which provides digital and media solutions for brick-and-mortar supermarkets.

More than 3 out of 4 (75.2%) responded that they’ve reduced spending in other areas to afford groceries, and in a follow-up question selected what areas they’ve cut spending in the most to pay grocery bills, with entertainment spending the most likely to be cut, followed by spending on travel, clothing, and going out to eat or drink.