Cooking as a cost trap

Pasta, flour etc: Where prices have almost doubled

Staple foods such as eggs, bread and milk continue to be massively affected by inflation.

(Bild: APA/BARBARA GINDL)

Cooking is an expensive pleasure! Since the wave of inflation in September 2021, prices for cheap food have gone through the roof. Particularly glaring: penne pasta and flour have become around 90 percent more expensive, tea butter and sunflower oil around 64 percent more expensive.

Since the wave of inflation in September 2021, cooking has become a real cost trap for many, as staple foods such as eggs, bread and milk have been massively affected by inflation. Anyone preparing penne with tomatoes, for example, will have to dig deeper into their pockets. Even for a quick meal, things are getting steep: a simple Margherita pizza or fish sticks from the freezer now cost significantly more than they did three years ago.

Specifically: Since September 2021, there have been almost only price increases - of 40 cheap food and cleaning products checked by the Chamber of Labor, only liquid laundry detergent has become cheaper (minus five percent). However, important foodstuffs have all become more expensive (see chart).

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Stock Adobe)

Prices also remain high compared to the previous year, as the current AK Price Monitor of seven Viennese stores shows: The same shopping basket with products that are actually relatively cheap (no expensive branded goods) became 3.2 percent more expensive on average across all retail chains surveyed between September 2023 and 2024. Traditional supermarkets also charge an average of 9.2 percent more than discount stores.

Next government must ensure affordable food
"People must be able to afford to live", says Gabriele Zgubic, head of AK Konsumentenpolitik. "Prices are still high, they are just no longer rising so steeply. The next federal government must do everything it can to ensure that food remains affordable." 

The consumer advocate is therefore calling for a fairness package for affordable food from the next federal government:

• an independent anti-inflation commission to monitor prices
• an end to the unfair Austrian surcharge on branded foods.

According to Statistics Austria, food inflation slowed to 1.4 percent in August compared to August last year. However, this 1.4 percent does not mean a reduction in price, but rather an increase on top of the already expensive food prices.