2022 Super Bowl Party Food Costs Jump 20%, Gro Indices Show

Americans gathering at Super Bowl parties this Sunday will feast on such traditional fare as chips and guacamole. Also on the menu this year: a big helping of food price inflation. 

Americans consume more food on the day of the Big Game than on any day of the year, with the exception of Thanksgiving. This year, that will come at a greater cost. 

Using Gro’s newly launched Custom Price Indices application, we created separate indices to measure changes in ingredient costs for typical food items served at Super Bowl parties, from chicken wings and beer, to nachos loaded with meat, beans, and cheese. All told, the ingredients to make all those Big Game party mainstays cost 20.1% more than a year ago. Much of that price inflation, which has squeezed manufacturers’ profit margins, is being passed along to consumers. 

No Super Bowl party is complete for most people without chicken wings — Americans eat over 1.4 billion of them on Big Game day — but their cost since the last Super Bowl has gone up 25.9% to a multi-year high. COVID production constraints kept chicken wing inventories low and prices high for nearly two years. Additional supply has built slowly, and inventories only recently returned to normal levels. 

Other popular Big Game fare: 

• Nachos — a platter of tortilla chips topped with ground beef, black beans, cheese, and the works  — costs 23.8% more to assemble this year. Beef and cheese are each up over 20%, while the cost of black beans soared 47.3%.
• Guacamole is ubiquitous at Super Bowl parties. A case of avocados, the main ingredient, currently costs food manufacturers $52 for the popular 48-count size, more than twice what they paid a year ago. Retail prices per avocado are up less sharply, at 60%. 
• A popular brand of flavored tortilla chips is almost as well known for its witty Super Bowl advertising over the years as it is for its variety of tangy tastes. But producing that crunchy snack will cost its manufacturer 18.5% more than a year ago, Gro’s Index shows. 
• Beer is the perfect beverage for washing down all the snacks for many people. But even a popular domestic beer costs 7.6% more to brew than it did last year.   
• If chocolate ice cream is your choice for dessert, the combined price of the ingredients to make that scoop is 25.7% higher this year. While cocoa is up just 6%, milk and cream have risen about 20%, and sugar jumped 39.6%. 

Rising party food costs for Super Bowl LVI mirrors a worldwide trend of higher food inflation resulting from unprecedented supply and demand shocks, tight food supplies, and extreme weather events. US consumer food prices overall are currently up 30% year over year, according to Gro’s US Food Price Index, and Gro expects higher food prices will remain a concern well into 2022. For a daily reading of food inflationary trends, follow the Gro US Food Price Index, which provides an inflation estimate up to six weeks ahead of when official US government data becomes available.

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