Il Sole 24 Ore survey on food shopping basket costs finds courgettes, coffee and olive oil among the sharpest risers, as families increasingly cut back on quantity or quality of what they buy.
The cost of a typical Italian family’s weekly shopping basket has risen by almost a third over the past five years, according to a survey by business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, with food prices climbing far faster than general inflation.
A basket up 29.5% since 2021
The survey found that a basket of 31 staple food products, designed to reflect the weekly shopping of a couple with one child, rose in cost from €100 in July 2021 to €129.5 in July 2026; a 29.5% increase. That is broadly in line with the food-specific inflation rate calculated by national statistics agency Istat over the same period (30%), but considerably higher than general inflation, which stood at 21%.
To build the comparison, Il Sole 24 Ore applied the relevant national consumer price index coefficients for each of the 31 products to the latest available data from the price observatory of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy.
Vegetables, coffee and oil lead the rises
The steepest increases were concentrated in a handful of everyday staples. Courgettes recorded the single largest rise of any product in the basket, up 51% since July 2021, reaching an average of €2.19 per kilo. Coffee was close behind, up 50.9%, with the average price climbing from €11.64 to €17.55 per kilo. Extra virgin olive oil rose 47%, from €4.73 to €6.97 per litre — a far steeper increase than sunflower oil, which rose just 26.1% over the same period.
Among vegetables more broadly, the most commonly used cooking varieties rose 39% on average, with tomatoes up 45.4%, potatoes up 43.5% and aubergines up 41%.
Istat’s broader fruit index shows a 28.6% increase over five years, but Il Sole 24 Ore’s narrower basket — which includes only apples and bananas, the two most commonly purchased fruits — shows a smaller rise of 14%, since those two items have been relatively less affected than others. Strawberries, by contrast, rose 48%, lemons 37%, oranges 31% and pears 26%, underlining how unevenly inflation has struck different fruit varieties.
Inflation has also hit breakfast tables, with milk up 21% and yoghurt, snacks and biscuits up 27%. Several other everyday essentials rose faster than the general inflation average: eggs (+43%), rice (+44%), bread (+28%) and tomato purée (+26%), alongside pasta (+24%) and canned tuna (+25%).
Meat prices rise unevenly
Meat prices also diverged sharply by type. Chicken breast saw the largest increase of any meat product, rising 34% — from €10.2 to €13.7 per kilo — as Italian households have increasingly shifted toward poultry as a cheaper alternative to beef in recent years. Beef itself rose 31%, adding almost €6 to the price of every kilo, while cooked ham rose 21.5%, broadly in line with general inflation.
The smallest increase across all 31 products tracked was table wine, up just 1.8% — far below the general inflation average.
The survey also found a growing share of households scaling back their food shopping: 31% of families said in 2025 that they had reduced the quantity or quality of the products they buy, up from 24.3% in 2021.
Beyond the shopping basket
Il Sole 24 Ore’s broader investigation, based on more than 180 products and services across four representative baskets of everyday life, found similar pressures on other routine expenses. A coffee at the bar rose from an average of €1.07 to €1.30 (+21%), a sandwich at the bar rose by the same margin, and haircuts rose 14% for women and 11% for men.
The findings drew a swift response from opposition parties, who argued that as households contend with rising fuel costs, utility bills and food prices, the government’s political attention has remained focused on electoral reform and its own survival rather than the cost-of-living pressures facing families.
