What it is
The Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, a government statistics office with no commercial interest in the result.
The Food Expenditure Series is the government’s long-run account of what Americans spend on food, split between food at home (grocery stores and other retailers) and food away from home (restaurants, schools and other outlets). The 2025 chart carries the series from 1997, in inflation-adjusted dollars, so a year can be compared with another without the price level getting in the way.
In 2025 the total was 2.51 trillion dollars, from 1.56 trillion in 1997. Food at home rose from 738 billion to 1.10 trillion; food away from home from 818 billion to 1.41 trillion. The components reconcile exactly to the total.
What the commerce leader should take from it
- More than half of the food dollar, 56.2%, is spent away from home. The grocery store competes with the restaurant for every meal, not with the store across the road alone.
- Food at home still grew in real terms over the period, so the grocery market is larger, not smaller, even as its share fell.
- The series is inflation-adjusted. A nominal figure from a company filing is not directly comparable with it.
Where to start
Use it as the denominator when someone quotes a channel or category number. The dinner trip in finding 1.3 and the prepared-food figure in the resource on foodservice at retail sit inside the 1.41 trillion eaten away from home, which is the money a meal solution competes for.
Keep in mind
A national aggregate in inflation-adjusted dollars. It says nothing about any one retailer, format or region, and nothing about online.
Where the report uses it
Read during the report design; not cited in a finding or a perspective yet.