Rising UK food prices turn cash-strapped shoppers away from high street

While fresh vegetables and fruit inflation held steady at 3.2%, cupboard food prices jumped by 5.1% compared with a year earlier, said the BRC. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Britain’s largest retailers struggled to entice shoppers back to the high street in July as the rising cost of meat and butter drove up food prices, adding to the pressure on household finances.

According to the latest snapshot from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) food prices rose by 4% in July from a year earlier, up from 3.7% in June and above the three-month average of 3.5%.