THE era of falling food prices is over and households will have to get used to spending more at the supermarket check-out, experts said yesterday.
The price of a typical trolley of food has risen by 8.3 per cent since the start of the year, according to new figures.
The cost of meat and fish has risen 22.9 per cent since January, while fresh fruit and vegetables have gone up by 14.7
per cent during the same period, a study by the retail analysts Verdict Research found.
Seven individual items were up in price by more than 40 per cent. A pack of four croissants was up 47.4 per cent, bolognese pasta was up 46.2 per cent, and chicken breasts had increased by 42.6 per cent.
Basmati rice was up 42.1 per cent, a medium whole chicken up 41.9 per cent and 400g of mayonnaise was up 40.6 per cent.
The survey comes after high-street data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) released on Wednesday showed the rocketing rate of food inflation slowed markedly last month.
Neil Saunders, consulting director at Verdict Research, said: "Food is one of the biggest components of household expenditure, and with increases like these, it is not surprising that the hard-hit consumer is feeling squeezed.
"The good news is that food prices won't keep on going up by as much as this. The bad news is that they are likely to remain stable rather than come down," he said.
"Consumers have become used to food prices falling year after year. That era has gone and they are having to adjust to higher prices."
The BRC said food inflation posted its lowest monthly rise for five months to hit 10 per cent in August. The month-on-month rise was 0.3 per cent, down from 1.9 per cent in July and the lowest since March's no-change reading.
But the rising cost of food is far exceeding the official inflation rate; the Consumer Prices Index, which includes shop goods, energy and fuel costs, is at 4.4 per cent.
The full article contains 370 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
