Food inflation surges to fresh high - BRC

Food inflation has surged past 10%, industry research showed on Wednesday, to reach a record high.

According to the latest BRC-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index, annual food inflation was 10.6% in September, up from 9.3% in August and the highest rate on record.

Within that, fresh food inflation was 12.1% - up from 10.5% in August - while ambient food inflation rose to 8.6% from 7.8%.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: "The war in Ukraine continued to drive up the price of animal feed, fertiliser and vegetable oil, causing fresh food inflation to rise significantly, particularly for products such as margarine."

Non-food inflation, meanwhile, was 3.3% compared to 2.9% a month earlier, while overall shop price inflation jumped from 5.1% in August to 5.7%, the highest rate since the index began in 2005.

Dickinson continued: "Retailers are battling huge cost pressure from the weak pound, rising energy bills and global commodity prices, high transport costs, a tight labour market and the cumulative burden of government-imposed costs.

"Government must urgently freeze the business rates multiplier to give retailers more scope to do more to help households."

Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight NielsenIQ, said: "With food and household energy prices continuing to rise, it’s no surprise that NielsenIQ data shows that 76% of consumers are saying they expect to be moderately or severely affected by the cost of living crisis over the next three months, up from 57% in the summer."

Last week, German hard discounter Aldi overtook Morrisons to become the UK’s fourth largest supermarket in terms of market share, as hard-pressed shoppers sought out cheaper options.