You think groceries and restaurant dining are expensive now, just wait.

A new report says food prices in Canada are expected to rise to record highs in 2022.

Authors of Canada’s Food Price Report predict the average family of four will pay an extra $966 for food next year, for a total annual food bill of nearly $15,000.

That’s a seven per cent rise compared with this year, the biggest jump ever predicted.

The biggest price hikes will be in the dairy aisles of grocery stores and restaurants.

Sylvain Charlebois is Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

He says soaring food prices will contribute to rising food insecurity in Canada, because wages are not increasing by the same amount.

“When food inflation goes up by 7-percent and wages don’t follow, food affordability is compromised,” Charlebois explained, “The U.N. actually ranked Canada 18th in the world when it came to food affordability in 2020. We’re down to 24th in the world now and we’re expecting Canada to drop even further in 2022 unfortunately.”

This could leave staff running food banks struggling with higher costs just as demand for their services increases.

The cost of food in Canada has gone up 70-percent from the year 2000, and has been rising steadily since 2010 with the pandemic accelerating that trend.

The report says key drivers pushing up food prices next year include supply chain disruptions, labour market issues and adverse weather events.