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Daily Record
Daily Record
Lifestyle
August Graham & Rachel Williams

Soaring price of food revealed as pasta, bread and tea hit new high

The UK's most squeezed households are seeing the price they have to pay for some of the cheapest food in the supermarket soaring by nearly two thirds, new data has revealed.

The statisticians said the cost of the lowest-priced vegetable oil had spiked 65% and the cheapest pasta was now 60% more expensive than a year ago. The price of the cheapest tea had risen by 46%, chips were up 39%, bread rose by 38% and biscuits were up 34%.

The date was collected from more than a million prices from supermarket websites over the past year to compare the cost of the cheapest available produce.

It allows them to better understand the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on poorer households.

They said that the cheapest tea had risen in price by 46%, chips rose 39%, bread was up 38% and biscuits up 34%.

"While the recent spike in inflation began with energy prices, today's fresh insights using a new innovative data source show they are now filtering through to other important items, with the cheapest price of some staple food items rising by around two-thirds in the last year," national statistician Sir Ian Diamond said.

Prices have risen across the board, but the ONS has collected 1.5 million prices over the last year to track changes to the cheapest available items on a supermarket's website.

It gives a snapshot of the extra costs faced by households who are shopping on a budget.

Price changes between September 2021 and September 2022:

  • Vegetable oil: 65.2%
  • Pasta: 59.9%
  • Tea: 46%
  • Chips: 38.7%
  • Bread: 37.6%
  • Biscuits: 34.4%
  • Mixed frozen vegetables: 31.9%
  • Milk: 29.4%
  • Crisps: 23.7%
  • Tomatoes: 19.3%
  • Instant coffee: 18.8%
  • Sausages: 18.3%
  • Onions: 18%
  • Apples: 17.2%
  • Baked beans: 16.2%
  • Potatoes: 13.2%
  • Fish Fingers: 13.1%
  • Tomato ketchup: 12.1%
  • Breakfast cereal: 10.6%
  • Cheese: 10.4%
  • Chicken breast: 10.1%
  • Ham: 9.9%
  • Bananas: 7%
  • Fruit squash: 6.7%
  • Yoghurt: 6.6%
  • Pizza: 3.2%
  • Rice: -0.2%
  • Granulated sugar: -0.3%
  • Beef mince: -7.4%
  • Fruit juice orange: -8.9%

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