Foodservice spending is setting records, USDA reports

Fueled by a strong economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. consumers are spending record sums on food eaten away from home, the USDA reports.

April 2022 expenditures at foodservice establishments exceeded the previous record seen in July 2021, according to a new USDA report on food expenditures.

Food-away-from-home spending (restaurants and other foodservice outlets) remained strong in April 2022, at 11.6% higher compared with pre-pandemic April 2019. 

Foodservice expenditures soared higher than pre-pandemic levels after their steep decline in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began, the USDA said in the report.

In March 2020, the USDA noted that efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 included stay-at-home orders that led to significant changes in U.S. consumers’ food spending patterns. 

Expenditures at restaurants, school cafeterias, sports venues and other eating-out establishments fell from $79 billion in February 2020 to $63 billion in March 2020 and $42 billion in April 2020, the report said. 

The USDA found that, while restaurant spending dropped after the onset of the pandemic for all foodservice establishments, the reduction in sales was more pronounced for full-service restaurants than for quick-service restaurants. 

Following a sharp decline during March-April 2020, food-away-from-home spending returned to pre-pandemic levels by March 2021, the USDA said. Food-away-from-home spending outpaced food-at-home spending in each month since January 2021, the agency reported, returning to the pattern seen during each month of 2019. 

Total food expenditures presented year-to-year increases from March 2021 through April 2022, the report noted. Food spending patterns in 2021 reflect the effects of the increased reopening of restaurants and increases in household income with economic recovery.