Grocery spending by category in Switzerland: what households spend on meat, bread, dairy and more

According to the Household Budget Survey of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the latest official source, a Swiss household spent about CHF 638 a month on food and non-alcoholic drinks in 2023 (CHF is the Swiss franc). By category, grocery spending is led by meat, at about CHF 120.

Updated October 2026. Sources: FSO, Household Budget Survey 2023, table T20.02.01.02.01 (data as of October 2025; English labels are ours) and press release of 17 November 2025; Eurostat, price level indices 2025. All sources viewed on 8 October 2026. Shares and sums: own calculation.

What do Swiss households spend their grocery money on?

Mostly on three categories: meat (about CHF 120 a month), bread and cereal products (about CHF 102) and milk, cheese and eggs (about CHF 99). Together they come to about CHF 321, roughly half of the monthly CHF 638. Then come vegetables (CHF 78), fruit (CHF 59) and non-alcoholic drinks (CHF 55). These are averages across all households, with 2.07 people per household. To compare your own spending, look at the shares rather than the francs.

How much do Swiss households spend on each food category?

Source: FSO, table T20.02.01.02.01; averages rounded to the franc; the 2015 column uses the same weighting method; share = category ÷ CHF 637.76 (own calculation). Sample: 3'038 households; the FSO rates the estimates for bread, dairy, fruit and vegetables as “good” and the estimate for meat as “medium”.

Meat, cheese, bread: what do the figures say?

Meat is still first, but by a smaller margin. From 2015 to 2023 it fell from about CHF 129 to CHF 120 a month, while bread and cereal products (94 to 102) and milk, cheese and eggs (90 to 99) rose. These are francs, not kilos, and medium-quality estimates for meat: they do not show whether people buy less meat. Prices matter too: Eurostat puts the Swiss price level for meat at 219 in 2025, more than double the EU average of 100 and the highest of any food group (see why groceries are expensive in Switzerland).

Almost half of spending on milk, cheese and eggs goes on cheese: about CHF 29 for hard and semi-hard cheese and CHF 16 for soft, fresh and processed cheese.

In the bread and cereal category, pastries outweigh bread: about CHF 47 for sweet and savoury baked goods against CHF 23 for bread; the rest is pasta, rice, sandwiches, flour and other cereal products. Fruit and vegetables together come to about CHF 137, more than meat. A table in francs cannot tell you how healthy your shopping is: see the guide to eating healthily on a budget.

Drinks, alcohol and eating out: where do they go?

For the FSO, food spending means the category “food and non-alcoholic beverages”: the CHF 638 covers only food and non-alcoholic drinks consumed at home, including coffee, tea and cocoa (about CHF 24) and mineral water, soft drinks and juices (about CHF 31). Everything else is counted in other FSO categories: alcoholic drinks and tobacco (about CHF 92, of which 63 is alcohol) and restaurants and accommodation (CHF 558, of which 427 is eating and drinking out).

The full budget is in average household expenses in Switzerland. Food at home takes 6.2% of gross income: see the guide to the share of income spent on food.

How does your own grocery spending compare?

Compare shares, not francs, because the averages are for households of 2.07 people. The amounts are in the grocery budget by household size and in food cost per day.

1. Collect a month of receipts from every shop, including bakery, market and shopping across the border; the guide to analysing grocery receipts shows how to sort them.
2. Take out what the FSO counts elsewhere: alcohol, tobacco, detergents, personal care, pet food, take-away.
3. Add up by category and work out the shares (category ÷ total × 100), then set them next to the table: a big gap is a question, not a mistake.

If you would rather do fewer sums, there is Rappn, a free Swiss app (iOS and Android) that compares the current promotions of seven Swiss retailers and turns receipts into a spending overview. You photograph a receipt, upload it from your gallery or enter a purchase by hand; the app sorts your purchases into categories and shows your spending by month, next to your own monthly average. Its categories are not the FSO’s: to compare, add up the matching rows of the table. A first step for today: photograph this week’s receipts. Rappn covers groceries, not rent, taxes or health insurance.

If you want your own figure rather than an average, the free Rappn app imports the receipts of three big Swiss supermarkets’ loyalty programmes, up to 12 months back, and you add the others by photo; it then shows your spending by category and by month. You need a Rappn account and must be 18 or older; the programmes’ terms still apply and the programme operator can restrict the link (how linking works).