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January 2023 - Food

Eight in 10 UK adults are concerned about the cost of food during Christmas and New Year: A study into how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting people in the run up to the festive period has uncovered that 81% of Brits were concerned about their food shop in the lead up to Christmas and new year. The cost-of-living crisis has caused common food items to drastically increase in price, causing concerns for many people.

The survey by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) polled British citizens in the lead up to Christmas and found that fears over Christmas food prices are higher than in previous years. In addition, around half of adults are buying less food as a result of food and drinks pricing rising the biggest amount for 25 years.

When looking at who has been affected worse by rising food costs, the study found unsurprisingly that poorer people have been affected most. The crisis is affecting roughly six in 10 of those in the most deprived areas; however, four in 10 are affected in the least deprived areas.

This gap between poorer families and those with more wealth is being further exaggerated with the inflation gap between high and low-income families being at its highest since 2009 (11% for low-income and 9% for high-income households).

The study also looked specifically at what shoppers were buying and found that, on average, half the products had increased by more than the official food price inflation rate. The highest increase of ‘every-day’ products was found to be vegetable oil (65%), followed by past (60%) and tea (46%).

More worryingly, the inflation on food prices is causing more health issues as a quarter of participants said they had skipped or reduced the size of their meals due to cost. Furthermore, 16% of Brits said they were worried that their food would run out within the next week.

 

 

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