A recent survey by the Social Market Foundation into healthy eating found that for households with an income of less than £20,000, 44% said fresh meat was unaffordable. Fresh fruit was too expensive according to 17% and 11% felt fresh vegetables are out of reach. In contrast, only 5% of households thought snacks such as crisps and chocolate bars were unaffordable, and just 4% thought soft drinks were.

Strain

The study into the reasons stopping healthy eating, highlighted food spending accounted for one in £10 spent by households. Those in the bottom 10% for income saw costing around one fifth of household disposable income. Just under a fifth of households said that food put a strain on their finances.

Two fifths of respondents said they had started shopping in cheaper stores and one in 10 said they had cut back their own level of food consumptions so that others (mainly children) could eat.

The report identified “food deserts” which are areas poorly served by food stores. These are areas which only have more expensive convenience stores with a limited range and households had no car to travel to a supermarket. In Scotland, estates such as Easterhouse in Glasgow were identified as food deserts.

The study states that one in eight people are “not near a supermarket offering healthy food at low prices” which was a major barrier to healthy eating. In total, 16% of survey respondents said they either didn’t have access to a car or were not near a supermarket offering healthy food at low prices.

Annual expenditure on food and no alcoholic drink was £3,016 with the poorest 10% spending £2,044 and the richest 10% £3,770 per household.

Scottish households spend £2,876 per household with higher than average price for food items. Beef mince was 10% more expensive in Scotland than the English average with lamb joints nearly 25% more.