UK food prices are soaring bringing another financial blow for families
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Jenna Maxwell
Netmums ContributorIf you've noticed your weekly shop bill creeping up, you're not alone. UK food prices are on the rise with 'cheap' basics going up 50% in price.
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Everything seems to be increasing in price at the moment. It's costing us a fortune to put the heating on, roast a chicken or go for a drive and it doesn't stop there.
Worrying new research shows that the cost of living crisis is now hitting low-budget food items in Britain's supermarkets - with some items like pasta rising by up to 50% over the past year.
So what does that mean for families? Here are what some basic supermarket staples cost today compared to a year ago, according to research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Pasta ...
One of the highest increases in the 'cheaper' food range, pasta has gone up in price by 50%. The cost of dried pasta rose by 50% between April 2021 and 2022. A standard 500g bag of pasta now costs 53p, where it cost 36p one year ago.
Bread and crisps ...
Bread and crisps also rose in price but thankfully not as much. Bread has gone up by around 16% and crisps by 17%. For example, an 800g loaf of bread went from 47p to 54p and a 150g packet of crisps has risen from 71p to 83p.
Meat ...
Minced beef also rose by 16%. A 500g packet costs £2.34 now compared with £2.02 a year ago. Chicken breasts have increased by around 8% with 600g costing around £3.22 in April last year, and now costing £3.50.
Overall, the ONS discovered that 30 'cheap' foods and drinks rose 6% in a year.
But it's not all doom and gloom, however. Other, basic items such as instant coffee, milk, sugar and bananas only rose by 1% and some items actually lowered in price.
A 2.5kg bag of potatoes was down 14% on average – from 87p to 75p and a 225g block of cheese was down from 95p to 88p.
The data was collected after an outcry from anti-poverty campaigners who argued that the normal inflation figures underestimated price increases felt by the lowest-income families.
Food blogger and cookbook author, Jack Monroe, one of the campaigners, raised concerns about supermarkets putting up the prices of budget ranges or removing them entirely.
She said, 'That then makes it difficult to identify that a £20 a week food shop a few years ago gets probably about two thirds of what you'd be able to get for that £20 now.
'As I have said for ten years now, and as many others have pointed out before me, it's far more expensive to be poor. Now the experts in data are helpfully backing that up. This feels like huge progress.
The ONS acknowledged the data, from online supermarkets 'highly experimental' and 'less robust than official statistics'.
Have you noticed your food shop increasing? Talk to other parents about budgeting tips on our forum below...
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