Americans are cutting back on steak as rising grocery prices squeeze spending.

Supermarkets say shoppers are buying more store-brand meat products and trading down from beef to less-expensive alternatives such as chicken or pork, after prices for products such as rib-eye climbed about 40% from a year ago, according to research firm IRI. Some consumers are replacing boneless chicken breast with cheaper bone-in chicken, retailers said.

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Americans are cutting back on steak as rising grocery prices squeeze spending.

Supermarkets say shoppers are buying more store-brand meat products and trading down from beef to less-expensive alternatives such as chicken or pork, after prices for products such as rib-eye climbed about 40% from a year ago, according to research firm IRI. Some consumers are replacing boneless chicken breast with cheaper bone-in chicken, retailers said.

Retailers said they are securing larger amounts of cheaper meat products as they anticipate more shoppers will seek bargains.

“Everybody is trying to find something that fits within their wallet,” said Carey Otwell, director of meat and seafood at Mitchell Grocery Corp. The Alabama-based chain has recently been selling more ground beef and fewer middle-meat cuts such as strip steak and rib-eye steak, he said.

Food makers ranging from Mondelez International Inc. to Kraft Heinz Co. have been raising prices in recent months to offset escalating costs in labor, raw materials and transportation. Manufacturers and retailers have said consumers have been willing to spend on groceries even as prices creep up because they are cooking more at home and spending less at restaurants. Companies also have said shoppers are buying more high-end items with savings, and stimulus payments from the government.

Manufacturers and retailers have said consumers have been willing to spend on groceries because they are cooking more at home and spending less at restaurants.

Photo: ed jones/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

That is changing in the meat section, where price increases have been the highest, grocers said. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that prices for all food consumed at home rose 4.5% in September, driven by a 10.5% jump in prices of meats, poultry, fish and eggs. Chicken wings, pork ribs and other meat cuts that require hands-on labor have experienced some of the biggest cost increases at the supermarket, according to meat buyers and grocery executives.

As overall grocery bills climb, shoppers are becoming more attuned to protein prices and looking for ways to save, buyers and executives say.

Store brands, which typically cost less than branded products, gained 2.7 points of market share in poultry, 2.5 points in frozen meat, and 2.1 points in breakfast meat in the four-week period ended Oct. 20 year over year, according to IRI. Store brands lost 0.3 point of share in overall food during the same period.

The shifts are significant after private-label products lost one point of share in 2020, when those products often were in short supply, said Krishnakumar Davey, IRI’s president of strategic analytics. The price gap is widening between store brands and national brands in meat, especially in processed poultry and frozen meat, IRI data showed.

Some grocery and meat-industry executives said people are buying more store-brand products partly because they are more plentiful, as major brands struggle with supply chain and labor problems that have led them to reduce variety, or pull back on production. They said consumers often adjust their meat purchasing in response to fluctuating prices. Some retailers are able to source store-brand products more easily than national brands because there are more private-label suppliers to choose from.

Last year, supermarkets ran low on many meat staples because the pandemic disrupted production in meatpacking plants and consumers ate more meals at home. Prices surged, then dropped as domestic meat supplies rebounded. Meat companies resumed processing, but reduced exports as Covid-19 snarled international trade.

As broader supply-chain challenges this year push up prices, retailers are now stocking less pricey meat and more cheap cuts. At California-based Raley’s Supermarkets, people have been buying more meat on sale since the summer, said Todd Allen, the company’s director of meat and seafood.

Weis Markets Inc. and other retailers say that they are securing more thinly sliced beef and other affordable cuts to meet shoppers’ demand for lower-cost options, and that they aren’t experiencing supply issues in the meat section. Mitchell Grocery is ordering meat from new suppliers and selling brands it hasn’t carried before, such as lunch meat from a Mexican supplier, the chain’s Mr. Otwell said, adding that many of Mitchell’s competitors are selling cheaper meat sourced from Australia and New Zealand.

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Food distributors, too, are changing what they offer to restaurants and other businesses. Merchants Foodservice and others are selling more sausages instead of bacon, which has gone up in price over the past year. Some said businesses are opting for dishes using brisket, which is more affordable than steak, though they said premium meat products such as Kobe beef and king crab legs are logging strong demand, largely from high-income consumers.

“When you have a tight budget, that $5 makes a difference,” said Terretta Scott, a 40-year-old data analyst in Baltimore. Ms. Scott has been buying meat in bulk and freezing it; she purchases chicken breasts when they are on sale and cooks them in stew or soup so she can make them last longer.

Ms. Scott said she has noticed an increase in the price of chicken wings at nearby stores and said she doesn’t buy beef for herself and daughter because it is expensive.

In Los Angeles, William Scott-Curtis, a 22-year-old college student, said that he has been ordering chicken or plant-based meat instead of beef to save money when eating out, but hasn’t noticed major price increases at his local supermarkets.

If food prices keep going up, “I would just cook at home more often,” Mr. Scott-Curtis said.

Write to Jaewon Kang at jaewon.kang@wsj.com