Almost half of Britons have cut spending on food as prices soar, official statistics show.
About 49% of people surveyed by the Office for National Statistics said they bought less food than usual between June 22 and July 3.
This is up from 8% among those polled last September.
Another 48% said they were forced to spend more than usual on food purchases.
Overall, 91% of the 2,300 participants said Cost of living has increased in the past month.
Nearly all attributed this to rising feed costs (95%).
Other reasons given were soaring energy bills (83%) and fuel prices (79%).
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See what prices have gone up – and surprising luxuries that have fallen
The most common steps taken to tackle this problem are spending less on non-essentials (reported by 62% of people), using less energy at home (53%), cutting back unnecessary trips by car (46%) and more shopping around (38%).
The figures reinforce reports from UK supermarkets that shoppers are under growing financial pressure.
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Sainsbury’s said on Tuesday that its underlying quarterly sales fell 4%.
Tesco, the largest supermarket in the country, said customers are buying private-brand items cheaper and making smaller, more frequent trips.
Last week, US bank Citi predicted food price inflation to exceed 20% early next year.
Inflation hit 9.1% in May and is forecast to reach 11% this fall.
