Would you like cheese with that?

With spring underway, backyard barbeques across the country will soon fire up grilling meat for that iconic sandwich – the hamburger. And like so much else, the cost of that creation has gone up.

One feature of the Statistics Canada Food Price Data Hub is a breakdown of how the prices of the summertime staple has changed as a result of inflation. The breakdown takes each of the components of the typical cheeseburger, and shows how the prices have changed.

However, the featured breakdowns evaluate the rise between July 2022 and July 2023, So the examples – beef up 8.8 per cent, lettuce up 14.4 per cent and others – were more current when the site was introduced, but haven’t aged accurately.

Comparing some of the basic components from April 2023 to March 2024 (the most recent month available), Tomatoes are up 26.4 per cent (and so, ketchup is up 6.5 per cent). But the other components show more modest increases. Beef is up 2.3 per cent, while lettuce, cheese and buns all show declines of 6.0, 1.9 and 4.2 per cent respectively.

The StatsCan figures are based on national averages and some standard package sizes, and may not reflect the reality at every consumer’s favourite store.

The Data Hub provides Canadians with timely data on food prices in one centralized location. It is the result of a collaboration between Statistics Canada, Industry, Science and Economic Development and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.