Early research finds each Flashfood store reduces county-level food insecurity by an average of 0.090 percentage points — reaching an estimated 146,000 people nationwide
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As Americans grapple with rising grocery bills and growing financial strain, new data from affordable grocery app Flashfood reveals a sharp increase in demand for affordable fresh staples like beef and eggs – underscoring the mounting affordability crisis playing out nationwide. Today, protein makes up more than 30% of all sales on Flashfood’s app.
Comparing Flashfood data from January 2025 to January 2026:
- Purchases of ground beef on Flashfood increased by 28%.
- Beef’s share of total sales on Flashfood increased by 47%.
- Purchases of eggs surged 90%.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, grocery prices are projected to rise another 2.3% in 2026. Ground beef prices are already up 15.5% compared to a year ago, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that meat, poultry, fish and egg prices increased 2.2% over the past 12 months. Meanwhile, housing, health care and transportation costs continue to consume a large share of household budgets, putting even more pressure on consumers.
Grocery app Flashfood partners with major retailers in North America to sell surplus fresh food at affordable prices, helping families stretch their budgets further while keeping good food out of landfills. The company’s internal data reflects how consumers are responding to the rising prices.
“These numbers tell a clear story about the durability of our food system and how innovation can facilitate getting people the food they need,” said Jordan Schenck, CEO at Flashfood. “The most nutritious food is more expensive today than it was a year ago, but retailers still need to offer it at affordable prices without burning their margins. The solution lies in addressing waste. Perfectly good food is going to landfills instead of dinner tables, which hurts consumers and burns revenue for the grocers at the same time.”
The squeeze on traditional support systems
At the same time, food pantries across the country are reporting record demand and being asked to serve more families than ever before. The emergency food system is simply not built to support the levels of food insecurity that shoppers are facing today, and uncertainty about government aid to fund these programs put additional pressure on an already strained system.
Early research out of Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign shows that Flashfood is having a measurable impact on food insecurity in the communities it serves.
A dissertation exploring the role of technology on the food supply chain found that, on average, one Flashfood store reduces a county-level food insecurity rate by 0.090 percentage points, translating to approximately 860 people per county — or an estimated 146,000 people across all counties where Flashfood operates.
This complements the role that food banks and other emergency food assistance programs play. Families can rely on food banks for canned and nonperishable pantry staples, while using Flashfood to affordably source fresh produce, meat and dairy that would otherwise go to waste at the retail level.
As grocery prices continue to rise and affordability concerns dominate conversations from the kitchen table to the Sunday night talk show, Flashfood’s data suggests a growing segment of Americans are rethinking how and where they shop to prioritize finding value on fresh food.
For more information, visit www.flashfood.com.
About Flashfood
Flashfood is on a mission to feed families, not landfills. The app marketplace connects shoppers with fresh produce, meat and other groceries at discounted prices. By partnering with retailers across North America, Flashfood offers shoppers nutritious staples at affordable prices, and reduces the amount of food going to landfills. To date, Flashfood has rerouted more than 145 million pounds of food from landfills while saving its shoppers more than $370 million on their groceries. Flashfood is a B-Corp certified company currently partnered with more than 2,000 stores across North America. For more information, please visit www.flashfood.com.
Contacts
Esther Cohn
[email protected]
