Food shop prices growing at fastest rate in more than 10 years amid warning ‘it will get worse’

Shop prices have grown at the fastest rate in over a decade during May, as food inflation continues to spike amid the cost of living crisis.

Data from the latest BRC-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index, which measures the change in price of baskets of food and non-food items over time, found that retail price inflation was 2.8 per cent in May.

This is the highest it has been since July 2011.

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The May rise comes after it went up by 2.7 per cent in April as the growing food prices offset offers an discounts in clothing and homeware.

Experts have now warned that food inflation will “get worse before it gets better”.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said increasing commondity, energy and transport costs have also seen retail prices climbing.

She said: “It is likely to get worse before it gets better for consumers with prices continuing to rise and a further jump in energy costs coming in October.”

Food inflation leap to 4.3 per cent in May from 3.5 per cent in April, reaching the highest since April 2012.

Fresh food prices grew by 4.5 per cent while ambient food, such as store-cupboard staples, rose by 4 per cent for the month.

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Ms Dickinson added: “Fresh food inflation hit its highest rate in a decade, with items like poultry and margarine seeing some of the largest increases due to soaring costs of animal feed and near-record global food prices.

“Retailers have been working hard to protect their customers from these rising costs, particularly at a time when households are being impacted by a huge rise in household energy bills.”

According to a new report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), budget pasta prices rose 50 per cent between April last year and April this year, with the cost of bread and minced beef also lifting substantially higher.

Meanwhile, the new data also showed that non-food prices saw a slowdown in inflation to 2 per cent in May from 2.2 per cent in April.

Mike Watson, head of retailer and business insight at NielsenIQ, said: “The acceleration in food inflation reflects the fact that retailers can no longer absorb the full extent of increased supply chain costs now hitting the industry.

“Promotions remain close to an all-time low and price cuts rather than volume-based offers such as multibuy are now the best way for retailers to help their shoppers manage their household budgets.”