Food Prices Tracker: July 2026

By Project Officer Katina-Leigh Taylor

What’s happening to food prices in the UK?

According to figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation has decreased from 2.2% in the 12 months to June 2026 to 1.7%, with overall inflation currently at 2.8% (CPIH).

The ONS found that the price of food has increased by 30.1% since April 2022.

Current levels of food insecurity

The impact of these ever rising food prices is seen in the latest results from our Food Insecurity Tracker published today. Overall, 12.2% of households (6.5 million adults and 2.2 million children) are currently experiencing food insecurity. And 11.5% of households have been cutting the size of meals, 8.3% have been hungry but not eaten, and 3.9% have gone without food for a full day.

More broadly, 39% say that it's more difficult to afford food than it was a year ago, and 41% are concerned about affording food in the next month.

How this compares to when Labour came into office two years ago 

Comparatively, two years ago, in June 2024, 7.2 million adults (13.6% of households) experienced food insecurity, while 2.5 million adults (4.8% of households) reported having not eaten for a whole day because they couldn't afford or get access to food.

This is the scale of the problem Keir Starmer inherited when he entered office, and it's the baseline against which his government's record should be judged. Two years on, as set out above, that record shows insecurity holding at similarly high levels, not meaningfully decreasing.

Labour’s 2024 manifesto set expectations for a government prepared to treat this as a priority, pledging to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels, deliver an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, review Universal Credit to make work pay, and raise the healthiest generation of children ever. We set out detailed recommendations for how the government could achieve these ambitions when they first took office. 

Against that priority, the government has since delivered several flagship measures, including: the expansion of Free School Meals effective from September 2026, the ongoing rollout of breakfast clubs, a published child poverty strategy, the Healthy Start payment value rise in April, and the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap from April 2026 - the biggest lever in the child poverty strategy.

These are welcome, hard-won changes. But set against the figures above, they simply haven't been enough to match the scale of the problem. Food price inflation has climbed steadily since Labour took office, from just 1.5% in July 2024 to a peak of 5.1% in August 2025.

It has since eased only slightly, running at around 3-4% through the first half of 2026. Essentially, the cost of a weekly shop has kept rising for this government's entire tenure. Two years after Labour took office with high ambitions, the numbers of people experiencing food insecurity haven't significantly changed.

Households are no less likely to be skipping meals or going hungry today than they were when this government took office, despite manifesto pledges, strategies, and several delivered policies aimed squarely at it.

The challenge for the new Prime Minister

Upon the appointment of Labour's new leader, this is the scale of the problem that they will inherit. Furthermore, the challenge will continue to grow, as price inflation dynamics linked to the conflict in the Middle East mean food costs are forecast to climb again through the rest of 2026 and climate shocks, particularly with an El Nino expected to last until 2028 increasingly impact harvests also driving up food prices further. 

The new Prime Minister must form a credible plan on tackling the cost of living and ensuring everyone across the UK can afford to put food on the table as an urgent priority when he takes office, and that plan must go much further than existing commitments.

Though, we cannot expect the Government to do this alone. Retailers set the prices households face every week, and they have a critical role to play in how affordable a weekly shop is for their customers.

Fixing the issue of food insecurity will take sustained, united action - government setting the ambition and policy framework, retailers and manufacturers playing their part in keeping a healthy weekly shop within reach.

As the new Prime Minister settles into office, the test will be simple: will food insecurity finally start to fall, or will the next two years look just like the last? 

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