July 4 cookouts will cost more this year

Rising costs for bread, cheese and propane will make today's Fourth of July holiday more expensive than last year, even for those Americans who decide to avoid higher gasoline prices by grilling at home.

Bread cost 16 percent more in May than last year, cheese jumped 14 percent, snack foods are up 7.4 percent, and ice cream gained 5.9 percent, Labor Department data show.

While hamburger, hot-dog and pork-chop prices are about the same, that's only consolation for consumers who like their meat raw: propane used in grills costs 29 percent more, Energy Department data show.

"There's not a thing out there that has not gone up in price," said Mike Mills, a barbecue-restaurant owner in downstate Murphysboro, who is the past president of the National Barbecue Association and a former championship griller.

More Americans may cook at home after gasoline rose to a record $4-plus a gallon. The number of travelers over the July 4 holiday is expected to drop for the first time this decade, the AAA said. The fuel savings are getting eaten up by the rising costs at the grocery store. Food inflation last year grew at the fastest pace in 17 years, and the government forecast a bigger rise in 2008.

Mills, who owns the 17th Street Bar & Grill restaurants in southern Illinois and the Memphis Championship Barbecue in Las Vegas, said he'll turn the grill on 15 minutes before cooking to conserve fuel at home this weekend. In the past, he said he'd start an hour earlier. The price of propane for residential use is forecast to be $2.65 a gallon this month, up from $2.05 last July, according to data on the Energy Information Administration Web site, ww.eia.doe.gov.

Mills also said he will cook pork and chicken rather than the more-expensive beef steaks. "I am a steak lover," Mills said. "I am not going to be doing any steaks."

Retailers are passing along higher prices to consumers as global demand for food boosts U.S. exports, production is disrupted by harsh weather and more crops are used to make fuel, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

"It continues to put consumers in a difficult position as food prices rise, especially for low-income consumers," said Chris Waldrop, director of the food policy institute at the Consumer Federation of America in Washington.