New grocery price warning in place as data shows food is 5% more expensive than a year ago
New research shared with ITV News shows that families are cutting back on fresh fruit and vegetables, and eating fewer healthy meals. ITV News Consumer Editor Chris Choi reports
There’s a new price warning on a range of goods. It coincides with figures showing grocery costs are still rising - though less steeply than before.
Today, industry figures from the British Retail Consortium show that food is 5% more expensive than a year ago.
New research from the Food Foundation charity shows the deep impact this cost of living crisis is having on our national diet.
Households are buying fewer vegetables than 50 years ago.
The charity’s executive director, Anne Taylor, told ITV News: "Our basic basket of goods, that we’ve been tracking for two years, is now 25% more expensive that it was 2 years ago.
"So the reality is that families that are experiencing food insecurity are having to make really difficult choices about what they are putting on the table - and we are really worried about the health consequences of this."
A single dad on a Canterbury council estate is aiming to use his own experiences to highlight the affects on his community.
Dominic Watters says government support has not kept pace with rising food prices.
"There’ve been times when I could only feed my daughter and have her leftovers, or nothing at all," Dominic told us.
"I hear my neighbours talking about spending all day on the bus just to get the cheapest deals on microwave meals…. The shop on the estate doesn’t really sell anything fresh."
He says the problem is being hidden to a large extent because many people feel a stigma about discussing food poverty.
Speaking to ITV News from an international trade conference, exports expert Marco Forgione said conflict in the Red Sea will inflate more costs.
"You look at beef, lamb, wine from Australia and New Zealand - coffee from Kenya... all of which normally transit through Bab-el-Mandeb the Red Sea and Suez."
After years of rising prices, there’s more to come as foods that were once everyday seem more like luxuries for millions.
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