SkipTheDishes has a new tool to track everyday grocery items in real time for food inflation-weary consumers.

“The Inflation Cookbook” is a data-powered budget maximizing tool for users of SkipTheDishes and its rapid grocery and convenience delivery service, Skip Express Lane. Using AI, the platform monitors real-time prices of nutritious food items and curates a list of ingredients for people based on their location, family size and budget, with recipes created in partnership with chefs and nutritionists. Insights are brand agnostic and tailored to each region, covering 400 items like produce, whole grains and dairy, as well as select proteins.

The tool is informed by not just the increase in prices for food staples, but also the volatility of those prices and how that impacts nutrition, says Rafik Belmesk, chief strategy officer for Dentsu Creative, which helped bring the tool to market, spearheading the campaign from the initial concept to the execution stage.

“The Inflation Cookbook is about more than just getting the cheapest items, it’s a tool that helps them understand the week-to-week volatility of the healthiest ingredients so they can make the best choices for their budget,” says Jordan Doucette, Dentsu Creative’s chief creative officer, who says that the austere design sensibilities are meant to reflect the stock market tracking’s look and feel and simplicity.

The tool is geared specifically to raise awareness of Skip Express Lane, a fairly new service geared to groceries and convenience rather than QSRs, areas where Canadians are more likely to experience “sticker shock,” but is aimed at any Canadian who has to buy food in any environment. “When you see prices go up, people revert to cheaper meals,” Doucette says, noting that people are even skipping them altogether.

In fact, a fall survey conducted by the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research out of the University of Saskatchewan bears this out: it reveals that 20% of respondents actually skipped meals or reduced meal sizes to cut corners.

“It would be amazing if people felt more equipped with the right information and not feel so frustrated and challenged while grocery shopping,” Doucette says.

“If you want to use the information and buy from Skip, that’s awesome…but if you want to use the information and shop the flyer and get the best deal, they were very open and helping Canadians feel more empowered with the information,” Doucette says.

The media plan includes content in The Globe & Mail, where ingredients that are down in price will be showcased in a series of eight to ten recipes.