The prices of some basic food items such as bread, butter, and cheese have soared by over 30% during the last couple of years, forcing poorer households to make frantic choices between keeping up with their bill payments or putting food on the table, say campaigners.
According to research by the consumer body Which? shared exclusively with the Guardian, costs are much higher than they were two years ago, although food price inflation has slowed down in recent months, disproportionally affecting low-income households,
According to the latest analysis by retail industry data provider Kantar, the annual pace of grocery price growth cooled to 14.9% over the four weeks to 9 July, down from 16.5% a month earlier.
In spite of the slowdown, Which? figures demonstrated that food prices have significantly escalated over the past two years, and certain products have gone up more than 30% since 2021. The food products with highest rates of inflation are bakery items (30.3%), cakes & cookies (31.2%), butters & spreads (32.2%), cheese (35.2%), and milk (36.4%).
Since May-July 2021, juice drinks and smoothies are up 28.6%, Biscuit prices have increased by 27%, savoury pies, pastries and quiches are up 26.2%, meat prices are up 23.6% and vegetable prices are up 19.1%.
The consumer rights group is urging supermarkets to stock their cheapest products in their convenience store branches as well as larger outlets since charities warned that families were struggling to cope with food inflation.
Director of external affairs at debt charity StepChange, Richard Lane, said that the rising cost of living is making households reassess their budgets and cut back in order to make ends meet. He continued that these rises are hitting the poorest the hardest, since it creates a poverty premium where those on tighter budgets are not able to save by buying in bulk and end up spending more money on food and essentials since they shop little and often and with food costs continuing to rise, the knock-on effects can be felt elsewhere, with people having to make desperate choices between keeping up their bills or putting food on the table.
Helen Barnard, director of policy, research and impact at the Trussell Trust, the food bank network, said that those on the lowest incomes are the hardest by inflation, with the cost of essentials like food and energy accounting for far more of their budget than is the case for people on higher incomes rising especially steeply. Last year, the food banks in its network experienced higher levels of need than ever before, distributing almost 3m parcels to people who were unable to afford essentials.
She said that donations also increased, reflecting the public’s great generosity even at a time of increased financial pressure for many, but rising need outpaced donations leading to food banks purchasing 124% more food than they did the previous year, at a time when prices are higher than ever, putting a significant strain on their operating costs.
Which? has called on grocers to make basic food ranges that are affordable and healthy available across all their stores, to ensure that offers and promotions are used to support those who are struggling and are targeted at healthy foods, and to make sure their pricing is clear, so that shoppers are able to easily work out what offers the best value.
On Friday, Tesco announced that its convenience stores would be introducing cheaper own-brand range items but said more needed to be done, pointing out that own-brand items were still more expensive than budget ranges as for example, Tesco’s own-brand penne pasta is 75p for 500g, but its budget version is 41p.
Sue Davies, head of food policy at Which?, said that despite well-advertised price cuts, Which?’s tracker shows that prices of essentials such as milk and butter are still very high and piling huge pressure on millions, which is why access to budget ranges is more important than ever to help people save money.
