More than a quarter of consumers are eating less healthily due to the cost-of-living crisis, including turning increasingly to ready meals and processed foods, a study suggests.
More than two-thirds of people (69%) consider themselves to be healthy eaters but 28% say they are eating less nutritious food because it is too expensive, with 19% reporting that they are eating more ready meals and processed food because they are cheaper, according to the BBC Good Food Nation survey.
The poll found 17% are cooking less from scratch and 16% are cutting back on organic food and ingredients because of the cost.
Some 12% say they are eating less protein, such as meat and fish, because of price increases.
Some 28% say they have switched to a cheaper supermarket due to cost-of-living considerations.
READ MORE: Is Aldi right about the future of shopping?
Overall, 61% say the cost of living has impacted their healthy eating habits in some way, including being more conscious of eating healthily because they cannot afford to get sick (18%) and eating less healthily due to stress (15%).
Christine Hayes, editor in chief of BBC Good Food, said: "The BBC Good Food Nation survey shows we consider ourselves a nation of healthy eaters and we care about what we eat.
"However, rising costs have impacted choices and compromises have had to be made with people buying more processed food and ready meals and swapping supermarkets to save money."
More than a third of consumers (36%) said they are producing fewer leftovers now, with their reasons being to save money (59%); because they are meal planning more carefully (44%); and 34% saying they want to reduce waste to help the planet.
The four most common foods people throw away are salad leaves (31%), bread (29%), fruit (24%) and vegetables (23%).
The results are based on a Censuswide survey of 2,013 UK consumers which was carried out between August 10-14 this year.
READ MORE: What's behind Scotland's falling life expectancy?
Overall inflation, based on the consumer price index (CPI) which counts groceries, services and goods such as fuel, peaked at 11.1% in October 2022 and had fallen to 6.7% by August 2023 - the lowest since February 2022 - meaning prices were still rising but at a slower rate.
However, food and drink costs alone continued to outstrip general inflation with prices increasing by 13.6% year-on-year in August compared to a 45-year high of 19.1% in March this year.
The Office for National Statistics said the largest impact on food and drink inflation came from commonly-purchased dairy products including milk, cheese and eggs.
The cost of cheese had risen by 18% and eggs by 22%, but there were also steep increases in the cost of pork - 22% more expensive - while pasta was up by 24.5%, sugar by 55.8% and olive oil by 38%.
Inflation is even more acute for households on lower incomes, however, who tend to spend a larger proportion of their incomes on food and fuel.
READ MORE: Inflation will cause Covid-level spike in premature mortality, according to modelling
Research last week by Glasgow University and Public Health Scotland estimated that inflation peaked in October last year at 15.7% for the poorest households compared to 11.7% for the most affluent, after adjusting for the effects of the UK Government's Energy Price Guarantee (EPG).
The study forecast that the erosion of real-term incomes as a result of spiralling prices could result in a 6.4% increase in premature mortality - deaths before the age of 75 - which is on a par with the 7.4% spike caused by Covid in 2020.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel