Average family will spend nearly $1,000 more on food in 2026: report

This will be hard to digest for Canadians already struggling to make ends meet: Your food bills will be going up in 2026.

That’s the main takeaway from the 2026 Food Price Report.

This year’s version of the annual report, produced by Dalhousie University in collaboration with other universities across Canada, was released on Thursday.

CityNews spoke to the report’s lead author, Dalhousie University food researcher Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, ahead of its publication.

“We are expecting food prices to increase anywhere between four and six per cent, so for an average family of four in Canada we are expecting their food bill to go up by as much as $1,000 for 2026 – $994 to be exact,” Charlebois forecasted.

A family of four can expect to fork out $17,571.79 on food in 2026, the report states.