Laura Brinton has become more aware of rising food prices lately, not because she cooks for a family of eight but because of all the buzz about higher prices.

Brinton, 36, may have felt the prices less than some because she always has been a frugal shopper. The Midlothian housewife with six children, 18 months to 12 years old, says she plans her menus carefully and buys food in bulk quantities.

"I think I've noticed the [higher] prices; I don't think it's changed me a ton," she said. "Naturally, I just try to cut back. . . . I have enough mouths to feed where I can't cut back on the things that fill kids up."

She said she has cut back some on buying red meat, and in the past six months she has been making seven or eight loaves of wheat bread at once and freezing them. She tries to incorporate leftovers into the next week's menus.

"We try not to eat out ever," Brinton said.

Rising food prices have been the focus of world attention, not just that of household budget planners. The higher prices have been attributed, in part, to the diversion of corn into ethanol production and linked to food riots in Third World countries.

In Virginia, the State Milk Commission's monthly marketbasket survey of food and beverages sold in the Richmond area jumped to $123.33 in May, up 8.2 percent from a year earlier. The commission uses 40 items, ranging from round steak to peanut butter to granulated sugar, to help set the raw-milk price for certain Virginia dairy farmers.

The highest increase recorded in the marketbasket in May was for flour, which increased 103.5 percent.

Not everything cost more than a year ago.

The biggest price drop was seen in hamburger, which fell nearly 35 percent per pound.

Maura Lynch, a caterer and meal preparer who runs the Chef Maura home-delivery company, said she has seen the impact of higher food prices in business costs and in her income. She said her income is down as much as 40 percent from a year ago.

It's not just food prices but the economy as a whole that has fried the income of food-service businesses, Lynch said. Some of her customers have switched to smaller order sizes, but more have cut out their purchases altogether, she said.

She has considered changing her menu to cut her costs, but for now she is more interested in maintaining product quality, Lynch said.

One nonfood business cost that has taken an amazing jump, Lynch said, is that of the petroleum-based plastic bags and containers in which she delivers her food.

Petroleum is an inflation story for another day. Brinton, who hauls her kids to music lessons and soccer practice in a 12-passenger van, can tell you about it. Contact Greg Edwards at (804) 649-6390 or gedwards@timesdispatch.com.