Britons switching to frozen, canned food to tackle rising prices

British shoppers are switching to long-lasting goods like frozen and canned food in a way to tackle rising prices, stated a report today (15). 

Bloomberg in a report stated that Tesco customers are buying more frozen vegetables, fish and pizza lately. Some shoppers at the UK’s biggest grocer are also shifting from fresh pasta to dry, and from chilled soup to canned. Rivals from J Sainsbury Plc to Iceland Foods observed a similar trend. 

“People are very mindful of value,” Richard Walker, managing director at Iceland, the budget supermarket, said in a telephone interview. “Frozen food is cheaper and there’s less waste – and budgets are very squeezed now.” 

The report added that frozen vegetables, pies and meats are emerging as popular options in Sainsbury’s. In Iceland, sales of frozen foods are outperforming chilled. More broadly, sales of frozen vegetables are up 10 per cent on a year ago, outstripping the 6 per cent gain in fresh vegetables, according to data from the analytics firm Kantar. 

British consumers are reeling under decades-high inflation rates. Grocery-price inflation hit almost 14 per cent earlier this month, Kantar says, the highest level since it started tracking the data in 2008. 

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, says there could be “more of a move” toward frozen foods ahead, although he doesn’t expect a revolution. He noted that canned goods are also proving more popular for similar reasons, with sales up about 6 per cent in value terms. 

“People can buy in bulk in one go and they don’t need to throw any of it out,” Bloomberg quoted McKevitt as saying.