the cost-of-living crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cAs the data shows, once prices are up, they\u2019re up \u2013 prevention is the only cure.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1237638729.jpg\")
On average, shelf prices fall just 1 per cent of the original rise after six months, 5 per cent after a year and 7 per cent after two years, the think tank found (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n
Henry Dimbleby, former lead of the government\u2019s National Food Strategy, said: \u201cFood inflation has been brutal \u2013 and it will keep biting unless we tackle the underlying causes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s because our food system is tightly tied to energy, fertiliser and transport costs \u2013 and we\u2019ve built too little resilience into supply chains and production.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs climate change and energy volatility worsen, shocks are likely to become more frequent and more severe.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless we cut our reliance on fossil fuels, diversify supply chains and build real resilience into food production, higher food prices will become a lasting feature of daily life, with the heaviest burden falling on those least able to bear it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A previous report by the think tank suggests that UK food prices are on track to be 50 per cent higher by November compared to levels at the start of the cost-of-living crisis in mid-2021.<\/p>\n
The \u201cgrim milestone\u201d would mean that the price growth seen in the nearly 20 years prior to the crisis would be achieved in just over five years, almost quadrupling the pace of food inflation.<\/p>\n
![\"Food](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3a6128dcdeb597e256678eefe617af4fY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzc5MzU0OTQ4-2.75917011.jpg\")
Food price rises leading on from “major shocks” tend to come down only slowly and partially afterwards, leaving households facing a higher grocery bill long after the original crisis has eased, according to analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) (PA Archive)<\/p>\n
The ECIU said warmer El Nino temperatures tended to particularly affect cocoa, food oils, rice and sugar, with wider risks for other products linked to the tropics such as bananas, tea, coffee, chocolate and soy-fed meat.<\/p>\n
Households have already seen food prices rise more than 40 per cent since mid-2021, the report said.<\/p>\n
For families with children in the lowest fifth of earners, a healthy diet now requires spending around 70 per cent of disposable income after housing costs.<\/p>\n
Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, said: \u201cWhat\u2019s striking here is the lasting impact of these shocks: once food prices go up, they rarely come properly back down and that means for millions of people in Britain food becomes harder and harder to afford, and food insecurity continues to remain unacceptably high even after the headlines have moved on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are serious about making food more affordable, we have to focus on reducing the impact of the next shock, not just responding after the damage is done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK needs to stop lurching from crisis to crisis and put a long-term plan for food resilience on a statutory footing.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Good Food Bill would help protect families, farmers and food businesses alike by building a more resilient food system and helping to ensure that everyone can afford and access healthy food, even as climate impacts and geopolitical disruption become more frequent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-604653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n