In 2015, The Washington Post reported on “the slow death of the home-cooked meal.”
If only there had been a time machine to see the year 2022.
Axios explained that a Gallup-Cookpad global survey published data that discovered Americans are “returning to pre-pandemic habits and cooking at home less,” and have reached a “historic low” of home cooked meals.
Eating at home in 2022 dropped to ‘historic lows’
The U.S. reportedly averaged 8.2 meals per week at home in 2022 compared to the 9.4 meals per week in 2020.
Research director of the study, Andrew Dugan reportedly said, “if everyone is returning to normal ... it’s an exacerbated trend for the United States in Northern America more generally.”
The survey revealed that out of all the regions in the world, citizens of the U.S. and Canada ate the lowest amount of meals cooked at home during a given week in 2022 with an average of 8.4 meals.
This data is reportedly consistent with the rates the U.S. and Canada saw in 2019 and in 2022 these two regions of the world.
The Retail Wit reported that a detail from the survey included that, “last year, women in North America reported cooking 1.7 more meals per week than men.”
Why is home cooking declining?
The United States Department of Agriculture reported that “food-at-home prices in 2022 grew at the fastest rate in more than four decades.”
Prices reportedly grew for all the foods in the “food-at-home” category:
- Poultry.
- Cereals and bakery products.
- Other foods.
- Dairy products.
- Beef and veal.
- Fresh vegetables.
- Fresh fruits.
- Soups.
- Frozen and freeze-dried prepared foods.
- Snacks.
- Sauces.
- Condiments.
- Baby food.
CNBC reported that the inflation didn’t only hit for at-home foods but also for school lunches, airfare prices, gas, and more.
“Food inflation has been nuts,” senior economist at KPMG Tim Mahedy said. “We hadn’t seen (these levels) consistently really in decades.”