• by Teresa Buyikian , Yesterday

Inflation continues to hit the restaurant industry particularly hard, and it’s affecting the pizza category the most, according to foodservice research firm Technomic’s most recent industry report. 

While overall inflation rose 2.3% year over year in April, the report saw a larger 3.9% increase in “food away from home,” noting that prices had been on the decline since hitting a high in 2022 and 2023, but recently began “ticking back up” this year.

Overall, menu prices are up 4.3% YOY, with the largest increases seen in sides (+5.7%), desserts (+4.8%) and entrees (+4.6%). Full-service and limited-service chains were affected more than QSRs, with full-service inflation at 4.3% and limited-service prices growing by 3.4%.

And while value remains top of mind for the QSR and fast-casual customer, the study surprisingly found that the number of value meals offered on menus has actually decreased. In the first six months of 2025, menus contained 5.1% fewer meal deals than the same period last year. Despite the decline, some meal deals did see some growth, including burger value meals (3.0%), salad value meals (4.8%) and hot dog value meals (4.0%). The largest price hikes were in taco/taquito value meals (11.2%) and snack value meals (10.1%).

Technomic found that 56% of diners “usually pick restaurants with lower prices,” which is the highest percentage “historically reported by consumers.”

Pizza used to be the go-to low-cost meal to feed a family or group (54% cited “good value for money” as a top reason for choosing a particular restaurant when ordering pizza), but the recent findings reveal that price increases are affecting the category even more than others.

Price hikes in pizza were noticed by more than four out of five customers, with 35% reporting they subsequently ordered pizza less often because of the increase. And despite 35% also saying they still ate pizza more than once a week, the number of people who reported never eating pizza at all also doubled YOY, to 4%.