Greater Los Angeles Price Explorer — School Food Policy Lab

💡 School Food Price Explorer Guide

How to read this report

This explorer shows contract prices for school year 2025/2026 for the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim market.

How products are matched

Products are identified by manufacturer item code (100% match) or by text similarity in description, brand, and product characteristics (≥75% match quality). Only matched products are included in the analysis.

What is “% price difference”?

For each product we compute the price range across school districts in the market:

% price difference = (max price − min price) / min price × 100

Per-pound prices are used when available; otherwise total pack prices.

How to read the box plots

Products are grouped by food group and food subgroup. The box plot summarizes the distribution of price differences for all products in a group. For example, a median of 11% means that for 50% of products in the group, prices vary by at least 11% between school districts. The box shows where the middle 50% of products fall; whiskers show the typical range; dots are outliers with unusually large variation.

Interacting with the page

Use the filters at the top to drill down by food group, subgroup, match quality, or search for specific products. Click on a food group in the box plot to filter the entire page, then click a subgroup to see its products ranked by spending.

The spending chart uses estimated spending = quantity × min price. Click a subgroup bar to filter the dashboard; the chart will then show that subgroup’s top products.

You can re-open this guide any time by clicking the 💡 button in the header.

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Median % price difference

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Mean % price difference

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Products shown

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Products with >50% variation

Price Variation Overview

Whiskers (typical range) Box: 25th–75th pctile Median Mean Outliers n = number of matched products

Distribution of Price Variation

Top Products by Estimated Spending

Estimated spending = quantity × maximum comparable price. Bars are ordered from highest to lowest.

Potential Savings by Food Group

Spending estimates apply each product's observed minimum or maximum comparable price to its purchasing quantity. Potential savings = maximum-price spending − minimum-price spending; the percentage uses maximum-price spending as the baseline.

Glossary

Price variation: The percentage difference between the lowest and highest contract prices paid for the same product.
Estimated spending: Estimated purchase cost based on the quantity ordered and the highest comparable contract price.
Potential savings: The estimated amount that could be saved by paying the lowest observed price instead of the highest.
Savings opportunities: Products ranked by where purchasing volume and price differences could produce the greatest savings.
Match quality: Confidence that records refer to comparable products; 100% indicates an exact product-code match.

Data Coverage

Share of all 1324 line items covered at each match quality threshold. Spending = min price × quantity.

Match quality ≥75%

Products matched 980 / 1,324 (74.0%)

Spending covered 94.4%

Match quality = 100%

Products matched 896 / 1,324 (67.7%)

Spending covered 91.9%