Find savings at the grocery store in fruit and fish, one expert says

As food inflation eases at grocery stores, one expert notes how savings can be found at the seafood and meat counter, and among fresh fruit.

Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab (AAL) at Dalhousie University, said the price of bacon and vegetables went up in February, but fresh fruits and fish went down.

“Fish has gone down a lot and that’s due to the fact that people are looking for cheaper proteins and they do see the seafood counter as an expensive place to go,” said Charlebois.

Additionally, the food analyst also said people can find better deals in the frozen food aisles. The meat counter is also pocket-friendly, with bacon being the only meat to have gone up in price.

(I checked to see if bacon was in fact a cut of meat, but it seems like it’s made out of various cuts of meat… so I’ve opted to just use the word “meat” as an umbrella term instead of “cut”)

Data released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday showed inflation dropped to 2.4 per cent — the first time since October 2021. It did not exceed overall inflation.

“I think people should feel reassured,” said Charlebois. “Prices are still moving up, but at a much, much slower pace.”

However, the savings haven’t been obvious to shoppers.

“Maybe it will come in the next month, but I haven’t seen much of it,” said Noella Lebrun, a shopper in Fredericton, N.B.

Ham is cheaper than it was the previous month, Charlebois pointed out, and there are pockets of good deals in the dairy section. He also said vegetable proteins like tofu, hummus, and dry beans are up compared to meat.

“I suspect that grocers are motivated to bring some people back to the meat counter,” Charlebois said. “And so people should take advantage of that,”

According to Statistics Canada, the cost of fruit, fruit preparations and nuts also went down.

While vegetables were more expensive in February, Charlebois noted that it is not out of the ordinary.

“February is actually one of the most volatile months of the year, which is why I think this month’s report is actually quite reassuring,” he said.