UK households choose toast over healthier diet as inflation bites

Fresh vegetables and fish are falling off the menu. Packaged pizzas and processed meat are the dishes of the day.

Many British households are turning away from healthier foods as rampant inflation pushes them towards cheaper processed meals, according to consumer data and experts who are worried about the nation taking a nutritional nosedive.

Prices for fresh vegetables rose about 14 per cent in September versus the same month last year earlier for example, while fresh beef also jumped 14 per cent, fish 15 per cent, poultry 17 per cent, eggs 22 per cent and low-fat milk 42 per cent.

Meanwhile, salted or smoked meat such as bacon and crisps went up a slower pace of about 12 per cent each, packaged pizzas rose nearly 10 per cent, sugary snacks like gummies increased by 6 per cent and chocolate increased by just over 3 per cent.

Shopping habits are changing too, according to exclusive data from NielsenIQ, which created a basket of 37 food products. 

Volume sales of fresh vegetables fell by more than 6 per cent and fresh meat by over 7 per cent in August, for example, while sales of snacks and candy rose almost 4 pPackaged food products often contain unhealthy levels of salt, fat and sugar, plus flavour-enhancers and preservative chemicals to give them longer shelf lives, and are associated with higher risks of obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancers.

Britain is already near the forefront of an “obesity epidemic” across Europe, where almost 60 per cent of adults are overweight or obese, raising their risk of premature death and serious disease, according to a World Health Organization 

report in May.

Fresh food has become more expensive because it is more energy intensive to produce than packaged food made consumer goods companies.

Close to 10 million adults - or one in five households - are unable to put enough food on the table, with some skipping meals or going without for an entire day, the charity's nationwide survey carried out in late September suggests.

That’s double the number affected in January.