Price gap between more and less healthy foods grows

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-10/uoc-pgb100614.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 8-Oct-2014

Contact: Fred Lewsey
University of Cambridge
Price gap between more and less healthy foods grows

A new study, published today in the journal PLOS One, tracked the price of 94 key food and beverage items from 2002 to 2012. Its findings show that more healthy foods were consistently more expensive than less healthy foods, and have risen more sharply in price over time.

Food prices in the UK have risen faster than the price of other goods in recent years, and this new research shows that the increase has been greater for more healthy foods, making them progressively more expensive over time.

While less healthy foods had a slightly greater price rise relative to 2002, the absolute increase was significantly more for more healthy foods - a total average increase of £1.84 per 1000kcal for more healthy food across the decade, compared to £0.73 for less healthy food.

In 2002, 1000 kcal of more healthy foods – as defined by criteria devised for the UK government – cost an average of £5.65, compared to purchasing the same quantity of energy from less healthy food at £1.77. By 2012 this cost had changed to £7.49 for more healthy and £2.50 for less healthy foods.

Researchers from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) at the University of Cambridge who conducted the study say that this trend could result in people increasingly turning to less healthy food.

"Food poverty and the rise of food banks have recently been an issue of public concern in the UK, but as well as making sure people don't go hungry it is also important that a healthy diet is affordable," said lead author Nicholas Jones.

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