Increased food costs taking a toll on PG restaurants

Rising food costs are forcing Prince George restaurants to up their prices for your favourite meal.

According to Stats Canada, food and shelter helped the country’s inflation rate hit 6.8% in April – the highest its been since 1981.

It was just over the 6.7 percent rate seen in March.

Canadians paid 9.7 percent more in April for groceries, the largest increase in that category in 41 years.

Eoin (Owen) Foley owns and operates Nancy O’s and Betulla Burning and says a large number of their key items are up anywhere between 10% and 60%.

“Right now, what comes to mind is chicken. With the Avian flu and the basic commodities in grain have increased sharply and that will affect not just your cooking oil but everything cooking oil is made of like mayonnaise and then whenever one meat product increases, typically you will see a spike in all the others.”

He added the Russian invasion of Ukraine is also causing increased demand for another key commodity.

“With two major grain-producing countries in conflict with each other right now, everywhere else that produces a lot of grain is going to see much higher demand and prices skyrocket,” added Foley.

In addition, cooking oil is the latest product experiencing a shortage. Foley told MyPGNow, that people often don’t realize it’s such a staple ingredient in so many of the foods we consume.

“It’s not just the olive oil or vegetable we use to cook with, it’s a common ingredient in so many items. Not necessairly at restaurants but in a lot of the pre-packaged foods you see at the grocery store. If you look at the ingrideints list on a lot of items, you will often see some sort of vegetable oil in there.”

Foley adds patrons should avoid giving flack to wait staff and management while dining out at their favourite restaurant when it comes to the increased prices.

He stated restaurant owners are trying to survive during a very difficult period.

– with files from Vista Radio newswire