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Ingredient prices

Ground beef price per pound

100% ground beef, US city average. Usually the single largest line in an independent full-service kitchen's protein spend, and the one a burger menu lives or dies on.

Also known as hamburger, minced beef, or beef mince.

October 2026 · US city average

$6.79

per lb

1 month
−1.9%
3 months
−0.5%
12 months
+7.4%

2024-01 to 2026-09

6.925.03Jan '24Sep '26

What the last 12 months did to a plate

Representative portions and volumes — substitute your own. The point isn't the exact figure, it's that a +7.4% move on one ingredient turns into a specific annual number on a specific dish, and that number is usually larger than it feels.

DishUsesCost todayChange per platePer year at 412/wk
House burger6 oz patty$2.55+$0.18+$3,767.95
Double smash burger2 × 4 oz$3.40+$0.23+$1,951.04
Bolognese4 oz$1.70+$0.12+$1,097.46
Chili5 oz$2.12+$0.15+$724.02

Volumes differ per row — each is a plausible weekly count for that dish. Computed from the BLS series above; your supplier price will differ by region, volume and grade.

What moves this price

  • Cattle herd size. Rebuilding a herd takes years, so tight supply persists long after the drought or cost shock that caused it.
  • Feed and fuel. Both flow into finishing cost and then into carcass price.
  • Lean-point demand. 80/20 and 90/10 don't move together — leaner blends track differently and can diverge by a lot.
  • Imported lean trim. Domestic blends depend on imported lean beef; trade policy on it moves the price of a burger patty directly.

Buying notes

  • Blend ratio is a cost lever most menus never touch. Moving from 80/20 to 85/15 changes both price per pound and cook loss, and the two partly cancel — run both through the yield calculator before assuming the leaner blend costs more.
  • Grinding in house from chuck or trim can be cheaper per usable pound, but only if the trim genuinely comes from cuts you're already breaking down. Buying chuck specifically to grind rarely beats a ground price.
  • Case price on catch-weight beef tells you nothing week to week — track the per-pound figure or you'll mistake a bigger box for a price rise. See catch weight.
  • For where beef prices may go next year, USDA's 2027 food price forecast gives retail and wholesale beef separately, with a check of how far its past forecasts missed.

This is the national average. Yours is the one that matters.

Review a supplier invoice and the affected recipe in Marji to check your own plate cost. Quantities, units, usable yields and ingredient costs need review before a margin can guide a price decision. Ongoing costing starts with a free 14-day trial, with no card required; continued costing access requires a paid plan.

Start a 14-day costing trial →See it in the index

When a price change means a new menu price, a free QR menu lets you update it without reprinting.

To cost a recipe with your own purchase price and usable yield, compare free recipe costing apps and their plan limits. The guide includes a calculation you can check before entering your full menu.

Recent ingredient cost and pricing guides

Put market changes in context, check a dish with your own costs, and decide how to explain a menu price change.

Related terms