Have you ever taken a bite of your hamburger and wondered, “how much money goes into what I am eating?” While the burger itself may only cost $5-$10, the economics of this meal span a far greater price. Growing up, my family rarely ate meat, so it wasn’t until later in my life that I realized just how popular this American classic is. In the US, we consume an average of 61.2lbs of burger meat per person!! That is an average of 26.1 billion pounds of meat consumed in one year, costing the US roughly 2.2 billion dollars!
Even though I opted for a veggie burger at dinner, I still want to dress that dish up before digging in. While I myself am a mustard girl, it seems that the US overwhelmingly prefers ketchup. For mustard, we spend roughly 18 million dollars on the condiment…but for ketchup, we spent just shy of a billion dollars! $901 million to be exact. So, while you may think of the classic burger as an affordable staple, just imagine spending the millions of dollars that the US does on ingredients as simple as condiments.
No wonder the hamburger ranks #1 as America’s all-time favorite food! What’s your favorite way to style this American classic?