Fluctuating prices are causing a unique problem for food producers and grocery stores.

Sylvain Charlebois of the Agrifood Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University says it’s an issue he’s raised in Parliament with MPs, senators, and the former Bank of Canada governor.

Charlebois says food inflation is bad, but price volatility is worse in many ways.

As an example, he says wildly fluctuating beef prices have forced many consumers to walk away from those products in the grocery stores.

“Price volatility is even worse (than inflation) because it will push people away from a very nutritious category for a long time,” says Charlebois. “Even if beef actually goes back down 30 per cent, people won’t just go back because they think that category is out of reach financially.”