Fireworks (photo by Daniel Wolfram, courtesy of morguefile.com)

Rising food costs may be straining family budgets, but they won’t stop Americans from celebrating the 4th of July with good old-fashioned cookouts. An article in Gourmet Retailer cites new research from The Nielsen Company which says, “U.S. consumers are expected to purchase more than 110 million pounds or $2,15 million worth of hot dogs.”

According to the article in Gourmet Retailer,

Hot dogs aren’t the only item on July 4 menus, with consumers expected to purchase more than 25 million pounds or $117 million of fresh ground beef and more than 32 million pounds or nearly $71 million of frozen ground beef during the same time frame, while bratwurst and knockwurst sales will likely exceed $51 million. Carbonated beverage sales are also expected to soar, reaching a whopping $1.5 billion, or more than 240 million cases.

Sounds like a delicious day of high cholesterol intake, so we might follow our Independence Day celebration with a dinner of salad on the 5th!

If you’d like to read the Gourmet Retailer article cited above go to: High Food Costs Won't Rain on July 4 Celebrations