U.S. Consumers Increased Spending on Food Away From Home in 2023, Driving Overall Food Spending Growth

In 2023, US food spending reached a high of $2.57 trillion, a 7.5% increase from the previous year. This was primarily due to a 12.0% increase in spending on food away from home (FAH) to $4,485 per capita, while food-at-home spending rose 1.8% to $3,187 per capita. The shift in consumer behavior towards eating out led to the highest share of food spending dedicated to FAFH since the 1930s. In 2023, nominal spending at FAFH establishments accounted for 58.5 percent of total food spending, while the remaining 41.5% occurred at food-at-home outlets. FAFH establishments must pay labor costs for workers to prepare and serve food. In 2023, U.S. consumers spent an average of 11.2 percent of their disposable personal income on food, the same percentage as 2022. Disposable personal income is the amount of money consumers have left to spend or save after paying taxes. Disposable incomes rose 8.1 percent in 2023. Although the share of disposable income spent on food remained the same as 2022, the share spent on food at home decreased to 5.3 percent from 5.6 percent in 2022, and the share spent on food away from home grew to 5.9 percent from 5.6 percent in 2022. This shift indicates that consumers’ preferences for dining out and buying prepared meals grew as disposable personal income rose in 2023.…… Read