Food is too cheap ?

[Loveshelly]

Food has never been cheaper, meat is unbelievably cheap. Even with a conscious move towards less meat consumption it’s clear that huge consumption of cheap meat is going on.

AIBU to think that we all need to spend more on our produce, especially in the wake of brexit, we clearly cannot rely on cheap labour anymore. So we are going to have to pay more.

All I tend to see on MN is people desperate to get food bills down, then on another thread people fretting they can’t keep heating on all night.

Have we become totally skewed about what are the things we should be spending more and less on.

Food in Britain is subsidised through the government with the Basic Payment Scheme, ELS and HLS schemes. With the end of these schemes farmers will no longer be provided with a basic income, added into the fact that they can’t get farm workers - I’d expect food prices to rise.

Additionally supermarkets have ‘loss leaders’ things like cheap milk and chickens. The prices don’t reflect the cost of production, packaging and transport. The supermarkets take a loss because they’ll upsell you other things to make up the loss.

@Cornettoninja

But the ingredients would last for more than one meal so it's not really equivalent, people are unlikely to buy a one person portion (which is what the ready meals are) of pasta or cheese, and many have milk in the fridge already

And then we’re in the territory of the ‘boots theory’.

Not in this example we aren't, no, we are now into the territory of being a not ridiculous to try and prove a point.

Bit*

[quote notthemum]@Hawkins001.
Just read a post from you ? Like another pp said, please have a bit of respect for others and not post on things you don't know anything about.
I don't smoke, I don't drink. I don't go out. I can't walk very far.
Luckily for me I am on loads of medications and one particular one means that I do get them for free, otherwise I could not afford to buy them. I can drive but can't afford to. I certainly can't afford £50 a week on food as a pp said that is what they spend. After losing my job, health and home I am definitely on the bones of my arse. I am staying in a friends spare room but I have nothing to contribute. [/quote]
All the best, I'll admit my suggestion was a sweeping one, yes I don't know everyone individual situation, I only attempted to phrase my posts as questions similar to the ancient philosopher Socrates, in that it's up to the individual as to how they interpret the information, all I asked was if a person's budget was tight , could they have other expenses that could be trimmed to free up more of their budget to spend x amount on food, with all due respect to all, I was just asking a question and I know everyone has their own situation.

Yeah if Socrates was on Mumsnet he'd sound exactly like you. 🙄

I disagree @Claudyapples.To bulk buy raw ingredients that make more portions and can be used for other meals requires an initial outlay that isn’t something everyone has. That prepared £1 ready meal may cost more when it’s broken down but the immediate cost is lower because you’re only purchasing a portion of a prep related larger bulk.

Over time the person who can only afford to spend £1 at the time will pay more than the person who can afford a bag of pasta, milk, flour and cheese. Then you can look at the ability to store food in bulk and the person who can afford to purchase and run a larger freezer has a distinct advantage over the person who only has a tiny freezer compartment.

@ImaBraveNhsHero

Yeah if Socrates was on Mumsnet he'd sound exactly like you. 🙄

"Socratic questioning (or Socratic maieutics) was named after Socrates. He utilized an educational method that focused on discovering answers by asking questions"

@Cornettoninja

I disagree *@Claudyapples*.To bulk buy raw ingredients that make more portions and can be used for other meals requires an initial outlay that isn’t something everyone has. That prepared £1 ready meal may cost more when it’s broken down but the immediate cost is lower because you’re only purchasing a portion of a prep related larger bulk.

Over time the person who can only afford to spend £1 at the time will pay more than the person who can afford a bag of pasta, milk, flour and cheese. Then you can look at the ability to store food in bulk and the person who can afford to purchase and run a larger freezer has a distinct advantage over the person who only has a tiny freezer compartment.

Yes I agree about bulk purchasing and storing foods, but in this scenario who is getting paid daily instead of weekly, and travelling to buy a ready meal everyday?

Well it’s a simplistic, scaled down explanation of a bigger scenario isn’t it? Those small differences add up the more people being catered for. You’re starting with the presumption that the person in our scenario has the initial £5 outlay to make the macaroni cheese.

Presuming they have £5 they could make a pot of macaroni cheese and cover 3-4 meals or buy five ready meals and gain an extra two or three meals. It’s not an unrealistic scenario.

In fairness macaroni cheese isn’t the best example because the price difference is minuscule and it could be said that person could just buy a bag of oats for the week. Swap that to a meat containing meal or one that provides more balance in veg and the differences increase. No one can, or should, just be living in macaroni cheese or porridge.

The boots theory definitely applies to food. If I had a pound for every time my wealthy (doesn't give me a penny) father has told me to shop in Costco because they save a fortune bulk buying... well... I'd be able to afford to shop in Costco!

When my dd and I were given permanent accommodation I was given a very small fridge freezer by a local charity. Obviously I was extremely grateful but it just couldn't hold takeaway cartons full of homemade pasta sauce etc. I certainly don't have the cash or the storage room for 40 toilet rolls or whatever.

It is expensive to be poor.

I do agency work and believe me our pay is down massively from the past, we aren't allowed to claim for food, rent, travel etc anymore.

There are still basic foods that are cheap - eggs, seasonal fruit and veg, flour, oats, eg. Op seems to be focussed on meat though. I don't buy or eat meat myself but I get the impression that many people make meat the main part of their meals now, whereas it used to be the smallest part. If you want to eat a lot of meat then yes, a lot of people won't be able to afford decent quality meat and will buy cheaper processed meat instead

There has been a thread on here in the past couple of days asking if two under 10s eating a 500g pack of mince in bolognese was too much. I was amazed at all of the people saying it was not too much and also mocking the poster who would make that meat stretch to 12 portions by bulking it out.

I just googled and milk cost 22p a pint in 1985 and I've just added four pints of milk onto my Asda order for £1.10. The bank of England inflation calculator says my 22p milk would now cost 68p so it is relatively a lot cheaper now than then.

Not all healthy food is expensive though, some is very cheap, I'm not sure why people get defensive over this fact.

The 12 portions seems excessive, but 500g of mince for 2 10 year olds I agree is a lot, portion sizes are wild now compared to decades past.

Ermm @SisyphusDad peppers are 3 for 82p in tesco😁.

@Upsielazy so true. a healthy portion of meat for an adult is 90g. That was way too much meat for a 10 year old

@Upsielazy

Not all healthy food is expensive though, some is very cheap, I'm not sure why people get defensive over this fact.

It is surprising.

Also, I remember thread talking about healthy food and how it's unachieved for poor and then when people talked about soaking pulses overnight because it shortens cooking time considerably a person arguing about people not being able to afford dood came in with (paraphrasing) "who the fuck can be bothered to soak chickpea overnight"....
Healthy food is absolutely achievable on very low budget in UK.

Sorry for typos... Unachievable, food, etc...

Have sympathy with both arguments.
Cheap meat is cheap: fatty old braising steak, 20% fat mince that renders down to slush, chicken legs with fat and skin snd little actual meat.
Good quality, low fat meat (and fish): chicken breasts, lean cuts of meat, aren’t affordable for many people.

For fish i can highly recommend simple frozen fish. I get white fish for basic cooking and it's lovely and super cheap.

Today 13:14 Wazzzzzzzup

For fish i can highly recommend simple frozen fish. I get white fish for basic cooking and it's lovely and super cheap“

Yes, agree, great for recipes, fish pie/cakes, etc. Basa is good value.
When you just want a simply turned fillet, though, we find the freezing process does something to the texture, it’s just not firm enough to eat that way, for our tastes anyway.
Fresh prices can be eye watering.

Just because some people struggle doesn’t mean food is expensive. It’s not , the OP is right, it is cheap.

Get yourselves over to France or the US where food is more expensive.

Some frozen fish is weird texture after, but many are absolutely acceptable. Basa is good. I got some in a freezer currently.
From fresh fish, coley was great and really affordable fish. Sadly I am not seeing it anywhere again here. Asda used to have them on fishcounter.

Let them eat cake...
(that was Marie Antoinette wasn't it)...

After all if they can't afford bread.

Either that or a Tory M.P. said not too long ago that

'porridge was cheap'...

@Wazzzzzzzup

For fish i can highly recommend simple frozen fish. I get white fish for basic cooking and it's lovely and super cheap.

Absolutely this, more than 90% of "fresh" fish in the UK has been frozen on boat then defrosted, if it is from a supermarket all of it will have been frozen then defrosted.