Cost of Christmas dinner rises by a third reveals Quenelles

The cost of a traditional Christmas dinner has soared by a third in the past five years, according to new analysis from Quenelles, the UK’s leading food benchmarking service.

With the festive season fast approaching – and catering teams across the country preparing their Christmas menus – our team crunched the numbers to reveal just how much the cost of key Christmas favourites has changed since 2020.

Mince pies have seen the sharpest rise, up 94% in price over the five-year period, followed by turkey breast roll (+83%), potatoes (+72%), pigs in blankets (+61%) and cranberry sauce (+41%).

However, not all festive staples have followed the same upward trend. Brussels sprouts have increased by just 8%, while Christmas puddings are up by a modest 15%, suggesting that not every item on the festive plate has felt the full brunt of inflation.

Our Managing Director, Paul Wright, commented: “It’s been a turbulent five years for food pricing – from the pandemic to the cost-of-living crisis, inflation has created real challenges for caterers managing budgets. While some increases were expected, it’s eye-opening to see just how much more certain Christmas staples are now costing.

“Of course, the percentage increases vary depending on what pack formats you look at – but the figures are based on the more popular pack sizes we typically see contract caterers and in-house catering teams purchasing, providing a realistic reflection of what’s happening on the ground.”

The findings come from our daily benchmarking of food prices, which enables contract caterers and in-house catering teams to understand how competitive their purchasing prices are and identify opportunities for smarter procurement.

With over £1.5 billion worth of benchmarked data, Quenelles boasts the UK’s most comprehensive food benchmarking database – covering more than 470,000 coded product lines, 3,100 named suppliers, and 51,000+ benchmarked products.

If you would like to understand more about how your purchasing prices compare to others, get in touch with us here to arrange a FREE benchmarking report.

The Quenelles team