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More than half of all adults in Great Britain are buying less food, with the most vulnerable getting worse with rising costs.
People in the most deprived areas of England are likely to have made the most cuts, with 61% saying they bought less food when shopping last month, compared with 44% in the least deprived areas and 51% across Great Britain.
Almost a quarter of people questioned in the Food Standards Agency’s Consumer Insight Tracker said they had skipped or cut down on meals because they could not afford to buy supplies, as food and non-alcoholic drink prices rose by 16.5% year-on-year. . November 2022, the biggest increase since September 1977, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Staple foods such as bread and cereals saw the biggest price increases, rising 1.9% in the past month alone, contributing to an annual increase of 16.6%.
That meant inflation for low-income households, where staple foods make up a large part of the budget, was 10.5%, while the figure for high-income households was 9.1%.
Campaigners and analysts suggest that supermarkets are raising prices faster than more luxury items in their cut-price range, putting more pressure on people who need to save money.
Food writer and activist Jack Monroe was the first to highlight how the prices of cheap food products increased and their availability on supermarket shelves decreased, contributing to increased hunger and poverty. Her campaign prompted Asda to introduce a wider budget range.
A study published this week, which tracked the price of around 19,000 items in UK supermarkets on a daily basis from July to December, found that items originally under 75p rose at the fastest rate – 16%. In contrast, items from £1.50 to £5 fell by just under 4% in July, and items above £5 fell by around 4%.
Items examined by price tracking agency Skoodle include supermarket value-range products such as biscuits, chocolate, snacks, oils, rice, pasta, cans and food packets.
A spokesperson for Skuuudle said the differences “make reading difficult for people on lower incomes who are seeing price increases for many expensive items but who are not benefiting at all from falling prices for more expensive items. The change is offset by reduced demand for more expensive items.” can be driven as more people turn to value products during life’s cost crisis.”
Concerns that rising inflation is having a disproportionate impact on people in poorer households in the UK have prompted government number-crunchers to provide a more detailed breakdown of living costs this year.
In October, the ONS reported that the price of budget food items in supermarkets had risen by 17% in the year to the end of September. This was almost double the 9% annual increase measured in the 12 months to April.
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