Canadians are no longer bracing for runaway food inflation, but that doesn’t mean they’ve recovered from it. The latest data from the latest Canadian Food Sentiment Index, produced by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, suggests something more nuanced: the shock of inflation may be fading, but its effects are now deeply embedded in how Canadians live, spend, and eat.

To understand where we are today, we need to look back.

CHARLEBOIS: Grocery shopping's new normal -- more strategy, less freedom Back to video

When the first Index was first released in fall 2024, Canadians were in the thick of a food inflation crisis. At the time, 40.3% of respondents believed food prices had risen by more than 10%, and anxiety was widespread. Food had already emerged as the dominant household concern, with 84.1% of Canadians identifying it as the expense that had increased the most, a staggering figure that set the tone for everything that followed.

Then came a political shift. In March 2025, Mark Carney became Prime Minister, inheriting an economy already under strain, with food affordability at the center of the national conversation. Nearly a year later, Canadians might reasonably ask: are things actually better?

The answer depends on what you measure.

If we look at perceptions of inflation, the situation has improved. By spring 2026, the share of Canadians who believe food prices rose by more than 10% has dropped to 29.7%, while expectations have stabilized. Today, 30.7% of Canadians expect food inflation to fall between 5% and 7%, and only 18.6% anticipate increases above 10%, down significantly from the previous year.

In that narrow sense,........

© Edmonton Sun