Data from the UK Office for National Statistics reveal that the cheapest food commodities in supermarkets are almost 66% more expensive than they were last year.
The cost of living crisis in the UK has worsened the prices of pasta, tea, chips and cooking oil – everyday foods that struggling households often turn to.
This comes as the inflation rose to a 40-year high at 10.1% this year.
While the pasta prices increased by 60%, the cheapest vegetable oil in supermarkets jumped by 65% and tea prices rose by about 46%.
Researchers collated and analysed over a million prices from various supermarket websites since the past one year and compared the cost of the least expensive products available.
This process was carried out to understand how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting the less privileged households.
National statistician Sir Ian Diamond said: “While the recent spike in inflation began with energy prices, today’s fresh insights using a new innovative data source show they are now filtering through to other important items, with the cheapest price of some staple food items rising by around two thirds in the last year.”
Earlier this year, campaigner Jack Monroe called on the ONS asking them to update the methods it uses to measure inflation to gather a better understanding of the impact of rising prices on the poorest households.
The new technique also revealed that the cheapest chips rose 39%, bread was up 38% and biscuits were up by 34%.
However, there was also a decreased in price for some items like orange juice which dropped 9%, and minced beef which became 7% cheaper.
In another set of data published by the ONS, it is observed that 72% of people using energy meters are struggling with paying their bills.
A separate survey of people showed that 69% of black adults and 59% of Asian adults are finding it difficult to pay their energy bills, comparatively only 44% of white adults are struggling with their bills.
It was also reported that 55% of disabled adults are finding it difficult to afford their energy bills and about 36% are even struggling to afford their rent or mortgage payments – compared with 40% and 27% of non-disabled people respectively.
Sir Diamond said: “Figures from our near real-time survey of people show that while rises in food and energy costs are affecting many people across the country, those who are disabled, from certain ethnic minority backgrounds and renters are among those struggling the most.”
He continued that the new “almost real time” data which highlights the distinct impact of prices on different groups of people has never been more important than now as the ever increasing cost of living is bothering most people.
