Ask people in Mankato if they’re noticing that food prices are rising a lot faster now than in the past, and a predictable expression quickly comes across their face.

It’s some variation of raised eyebrow and pained smile that briefly and completely communicates the same message: This guy must be a complete idiot.

People say the worst run of food inflation in 17 years is impossible to miss and they are feeling the jolt to their grocery bills.

“Dairy always hits me, like cheese,” said MSU student Nick Jicha.

“The milk and the eggs and the coffee,” said Pam Meyer of Elysian.

“The milk prices,” said Delilah Maloney of Truman.

“Meat prices,” said her husband, Jim Maloney.

“Meat, for one thing, is huge,” said Amy Danberry of Janesville. “Cereal seems to have gone up a lot. Milk and eggs are terrible.”

“Everything is,” said Doug Austad of Mankato. “It isn’t just food.”

Worst in a generation

The overall jump in food prices in 2007, according to federal statistics, doesn’t seem particularly extreme — 4 percent. But that’s the highest rate since the early 1990s, it exceeds the pay raises most people are receiving and it seems to be getting worse.

The price for food eaten at home in February was 5.1 percent higher than the previous February. And the projection for all of 2008 is that food inflation might reach 4.5 percent.

The jarring part is that prices for many staples are jumping much faster than the overall consumer price index for food. Eggs are 25 percent higher than a year ago, milk is up 13 percent, cheese nearly 15 percent.

That inevitably grabs people’s attention more than the lesser increases — or even decreases — in prices for other foods that keep the overall inflation rate under 5 percent. But there’s more to a personal budget than groceries, and fuel often comes into any conversation about food.