Sausage products remain a constant part of most meat eaters’ diets even as market factors change. Consumers remain interested in this segment, whether it is hot dogs, custom sausages, bratwurst, pepperoni, or other new varieties.

Updated data from Chicago-based market research firm Circana OmniMarket Integrated Fresh, formerly IRI, said the 52 weeks ending Dec. 31, 2023, reflected how inflation impacted sausage and hot dog sales with some categories down slightly and others remaining flat.

Frankfurter dollar sales, according to Circana, showed $2.86 billion, down 1% from the same time last year. Volume sales stood at $815.4 million, down 2.7%.

The company also broke down different elements of dinner sausage, which reported sales of $4.9 billion in the last year. This led to no change from the same time in 2022.

Subcategories in dinner sausage service included pork sausage at $2.36 billion, mixed dinner sausage at $1.33 billion, beef dinner sausage at $653.44 million, chicken dinner sausage at $306.59 million and turkey dinner sausage at $264 million.

Smaller categories mentioned by Circana included dinner sausage, fowl/exotic sausage, lamb and veal sausage.

Another category that remains popular throughout the United States is breakfast sausage. Well-known brands continue to place it as an important protein for people to start their day.

Circana detailed in its numbers that breakfast sausage sales stood at $2.18 billion, down 2.3% from the same period in 2022.

Leading sales in the subcategories was pork breakfast sausage by a significant margin at $1.89 billion during the time period. Next was turkey breakfast sausage at $207.7 million. The others include mixed breakfast sausage, chicken breakfast sausage and beef breakfast sausage.

Deli grab-and-go sausage was at $2.08 million for the time period, while grab-and-go frankfurters stood at $1.4 million.

Anne-Marie Roerink, principal of 210 Analytics, along with Circana, showed that sausage prices were fairly similar at the average price per pound for 2023.

Dinner sausage stood at $4.55 per lb which was 0.4% higher than 2022. Breakfast sausage came in at $4.74, up almost 0.2% from the previous year.

The latest information from The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC) website said 917 million lbs of hot dogs were sold at US retail stores in 2022, adding up to more than $3 billion in retail sales.

Like most years, May through September continue to be the strongest months in terms of demand. Meat processing companies are preparing to step up production of sausages and especially hot dogs as the start of baseball season moves closer.