To be horrified at the price of food

[Thorts]

Single pepper, now 60p - everywhere.
Apple juice - 99p everywhere for the cheap stuff

How are people supposed to eat fresh fruit and veg daily (and the right amount) with these prices?

If you were to look at processed food however; pack of ham 20p, custard creams 20p, garlic bread 35p.

You could get two of all the processed items mentioned for less price than one pepper and one carton of 1L value Apple juice.

Surely something needs to be done?

France is exactly the same, fish is eyewatwring from the fishmonger, we don't eat meat, but I refuse to pay the price of some fish out there. The only thing that remains a constant price is the humble baguette.

Some people might say that pharmaceutical companies love us eating this..more money for them later. Processed food is cheap, and I will be processing a payment to the private doctors later. Because obviously NHS will be de funked. To be honest ..the way this country is going, the price of pepper will be light relief.

I completely agree to you. So many people post about how they can still manage to eat without a scary shopping bill. I don’t want to be in a ‘race to the bottom’ to be able to avoid decent meals. I used to buy organic fruit and veg. That went by the wayside a long time ago now. Even without them, our food bills have risen by about 30% We can afford to continue buying the fresh foodstuffs we want, but need to compromise on other areas of life to do so.

I’m thinking that when people say ‘ fresh fruit and veg’ they’re thinking of fruit. A kg of carrots is 15p atm, usually 65p. 500g, a potato and an onion can make wholesome carrot and coriander soup for quick lunches all week for about 60p ( not counting the 15p deals) Carrot sticks are a tasty snack, bananas are cheap, big oranges are reasonable, 99p for 5, you can get lots of serving out of a honeydew melon at less than £2. Cabbage is cheap, onions are cheap - bubble and squeak is tasty. Vegetable soup. omelette. Jacket potato. All cheap and healthy.

Without getting on a boat and travelling for a day co-op is my only option :(

Canadians indeed sometimes use cup measurements. Is it necessary to be so rude?

Wow I’m in America and I wish I could pay that for a pepper! Here peppers have been $1.50 (£1.18) for over a year and my state is supposedly one of the more affordable ones.

Single pepper from somewhere hot and abroad 60p. Single fat carrot from down the road? A whole bag of them for 39p. Along with the chubby British potatoes and a can of baked beans (Stockwell's, Tesco) for 28p. Wonky veg boxes from all major supermarkets for £1-2. It's not that you can't eat veg cheaply and healthily, it's just that the prices of your more exotic overseas veg have skyrocketed.

I don't know where you live, but I've never seen a pack of ham for just 20p, no matter how processed it is lol

Nobody needs apple juice

its just as bad as fizzy pop

Apple juice is very unhealthy btw

Tbf, OP explained it was reduced, and then said it cost more than 20p.

So may have been Asda Essentials or similar, which is around 90p (and crap).

I also wonder how big the one for £35 was? We got one for £17 from Sainsbury’s and it was quite large!

The bag of carrots for 39p are small. The veg boxes go very quickly.

But that's simply not true. It really isn't easy to eat veg cheaply and healthily. Posters keep mentioning the 15p veg details on offer last week, without pointing out that these only happen TWICE a year - Easter and Christmas. So for 2 weeks in 52 you can buy a basketload for a £1 - great, but what about the rest of the time?! I've never even seen the mythical wonky veg box, do they honestly exist? Or more likely there's four or five boxes displayed which get snapped up in minutes, hardly enough to go around. And don't get me started on the quality of the ' cheap' British spuds from Lidl/ aldi - you have to throw half the bag away because they have rotted - hardly a cheap item when most of it is going into the bin!

I think you are being unreasonable OP because there has been so much coverage regarding just how much farmers’ costs have risen from heating, fertiliser, labour, water, pesticide etc etc.
Farmers are selling up as they work long hours in all weathers and are still in many cases loosing money so how can you be surprised your out of season pepper costs more?
A family friend who inherited a greengrocer business has changed careers as it’s just not sustainable as a business any more. He told us a couple of generations ago the average British family spent 30% of their income on food. We have become accustomed to ultra cheap food but it’s not sustainable.
I do like the idea of incentivising healthy food rather than taxing sugar though.

If you really want to save money and help the planet use your local community pantry. We have two locally that do a roaring trade. They collect food from all the big stores has been over supplied or near to end date and pass it on for a donation. You won’t get a weekly shop but you might come away with more than you bargained for. For a small donation of £2.00 I got a turkey, sprouts, parsnips, frozen stuffing, mushrooms, kumquats, two French sticks, lemons, venison pasta ready meal and some potatoes and oranges.
we do this regularly it is a great Community initiative.
Also look at the Olio app and too good to go. You can eat a lot cheaper and do the planet a favour.

But what do you expect people to say? Eating healthily doesn’t automatically mean eating out of season produce and expecting it to be cheap.
Peppers are not in season, people are explaining why they cost as much as they cost. Several people have also pointed out that food is more expensive in other countries, in Europe and beyond.
On treads like this, someone will always mention the 99 p pizza and how it’s more filling than lettuce and a couple of onions. No one’s suggesting to eat lettuce with onion though. Several people are sharing ideas for healthy, inexpensive meals made with pulses, tinned or frozen veg, rice, only to be told they’re sanctimonious.
On another similar thread someone said they wouldn’t eat dal because according to them it was poor peasant’s food, so back to the 99 p pizza we go.
Fwiw, in our family, we buy both frozen pizza as well as loads of vegetables, fruit and pulses.
Yes, food prices have gone up, but I think it’s still disingenuous to suggest that any type of healthy food is out of reach for low income households now.

But no one has to buy fresh berries in winter. I often eat porridge, hardly ever with berries though. It’s still lovely.

The frozen berries I get from Sainsbury's work out about 50p a portion - 5 portions of 80g in a 400g bag for £2.50.

But if someone was strapped for cash they might understandably prioritise spending that £2.50 on the three microwaveable frozen ready meals from Aldi you could get for that money.

One thing people often forget when they recommend batch cooking lentil dishes etc, is that while you might get a bag of lentils for £1, they can't afford to put the gas on to cook them for 30+ minutes.

I think both things are equally true. Yes, you can eat healthily very cheaply if you know what to buy and cook and have the means to do so... and by that I mean not only the physical equipment to cook but also the education. A £1 pizza is also much more filling and appealing and quick to prepare and more certainly to be eaten by children as well.

The main problem (apart from price gouging, which is happening) is education and opportunity. I'm in my 50s and had an archetypal SAHM who cooked everything from scratch. It has still taken me 30 years to become proficient at cooking everything... to know how to use dried pulses so they are tasty, to batch cook anything and everything (also a freezer needed there) to amass a huge array of herbs and spices to add to humble vegetables.

My latest education is in using wild foods... but I would never in a million years suggest that someone on the breadline spends their time foraging. I have the time (very important factor for any food preparation) and the knowledge and the ability to use those ingredients (along with other expensive ones) to create something nutritious and edible... but that is a huge privilege.

There is quite a lot between bag of berries and ready meal...

Soak, for the love of god, soak the pulses, people.

I always found it weird the difference between poverty in different countries. In my native one poor people can't afford ready meals, so they have to cook (like my family did).

A lot of countries do not have ready meals or if they do they are expensive. We have some very cheap ready made meals.
Its like some countries eating out can be cheaper than cooking your own meal. It certainly is not in Britain.

Ready meals are cheap to cook, but many other foods (that apparently you must eat or you are not really poor), like pizza or chicken dippers, need the oven and that costs a lot more than a ring on the stove top.