Along with family, festivities and fireworks, food is always central to Americans on Independence Day. The National Retail Federation has predicted that this year, 62 percent of Americans are going to take part in some kind of cookout with average spending per person $75.35. Given how important barbecues and cooking are on the Fourth of July, what are the nation’s favorite foods during the holiday week?
Last year, Nielsen conducted a study into food sales during the two weeks around the Fourth of July, finding that beef is the Independence Day champion. Around the holiday in 2016, Americans spent nearly $804 million on beef so expect to see a lot brisket, hamburgers and steaks smoking and sizzling away on barbecues this year. Of course, it has to be pointed out that compared to other meats, beef doesn’t come cheap. Americans splurged over $370 million on chicken, placing it a distant second on the list of the nation’s top-selling Independence Day foods. Pork comes third with $217.5 million.
The first non-meat entry on the list is berries which has a financial outlay of just under $200 million across the nation. Other alternatives to meat on the top-10 list include cherries and tomatoes with $131 and $115 million respectively. Even though seafood is entirely absent from the top-10 infographic below, that doesn’t mean that Americans avoid it on the Fourth of July. In 2016, they spent over $85 million on shrimp and nearly $50 million on salmon.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
