Supermarket grocery costs have surge with pasta up by 50 per cent since last year new ONS data shows.
The findings assessed the price of 30 everyday grocery shopping items between April 2021 and April 2022, finding varying increases across the items with five products showing a 15 per cent increase.
Pasta was among the highest with a 17 per cent price increase in the last year.
It comes as Russia’s blockade of Black Sea ports has left 25 million tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine – threatening famine in the poorest countries, but with stark implications also for the UK, which relies on food imports.
Cooking oil, which is used in crisps, ready meals, biscuits and mayonnaise, has already been rationed, while rising fertiliser and animal feed prices are hitting domestic production.
Although the UK supplies 60 per cent of its food, that is a yearly average – and the proportion drops closer to 40 per cent as winter approaches, putting pressure on the nation as Britons battle the lowest drop in standards of living in three decades.
For 13 of the 30 sampled items monitored, the average lowest price, across the seven retailers analysed, increased at a faster rate than the latest available official consumer price inflation measure for food and non-alcoholic beverages.
In cash terms, the largest price rises, on average, were measured for beef mince and chicken breast which were up 32 pence for 500g and 28 pence for 600g respectively.
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