The cost of everyday food items from instant coffee to beef and fruit juices has continued to rise.

Looking over the long term, the picture is stark. In the five years to July, food prices increased by around 37%. That compares with a rise of 4.4% over the previous five-year period.

Rapid rises in food prices hit low-income families the hardest, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank.

Lalitha Try, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said that low-income families spend a greater portion of their money on food, so they are more sensitive to price rises at the supermarket.

People and families with a higher income have options if they want to cut back, such as switching to own-brand products, but lower-income households are often already doing that, so there are fewer choices to make.

In our own community, we are now seeing families where both parents are working yet still cannot make ends meet because of food costs. This stark reality underlines how deeply the crisis is cutting, leaving even hard-working households struggling to put basic meals on the table.

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