National statistics

Family Food FYE 2022

Updated 27 September 2023

Introduction

Family Food FYE 2022 presents the results from the FYE 2022 Family Food module of the Living Costs and Food Survey, covering household shopping and eating habits. Around 5,000 households in the UK are surveyed annually. Households record their expenditure on, and purchased quantities of, food and drink both for the household and that consumed outside the home. Detailed long term time series are available for download. Family Food datasets cover household and eating out purchases for a detailed set of food and drink types, and breakdowns by a number of characteristics including region, income, household composition and occupation, amongst others. More details on the survey are in the About Family Food section.

Results presented in this headline release cover the financial year ending (FYE) 2022, that is, April 2021 to March 2022.

1. Expenditure

1.1 Overview

This section provides estimates of household and eating out expenditure on food in the FYE 2022, alongside analyses of changes in household shopping behaviour in response to food price inflation in recent years.

  • £41.11 per person per week was spent by the average household on all food and drink, including alcoholic drinks and food eaten out, in FYE 2022. When inflation is taken into account, the amount spent fell by 0.1% since FYE 2021 from £41.16, and by 17.0% since FYE 2019 from £49.50.
  • Households spent £32.17 per person per week on household food and drink in FYE 2022, and £8.94 on food and drink to eat out. Since FYE 2021, in real terms there has been a 14.7% decrease in household food and drink.
  • In FYE 2022, eating out expenditure saw a 159.3% increase in real terms since FYE 2021, but a 41.8% decrease since FYE 2019.
  • £28.23 per person per week was spent by households in FYE 2022 on food and non-alcoholic drinks, a decrease of 13.7% in real terms since FYE 2021.
  • Since FYE 2019, there has been a real terms fall in expenditure on alcohol for both household and eating out.

1.2 Food classification and results tables

Family Food classifies food items into a hierarchical coding scheme of approximately 500 different food codes. Full details of how food is coded and where it fits into the scheme are available in the methodology paper Food and drink codes. Because of space limitations, the data tables in this report generally only show selected food and drink items within the main categories. The accompanying spreadsheet datasets show results for the full list of codes, going back in most cases to 2001 and in some cases back to 1974. Historical estimates going back to 1940 in some cases are available from The National Archives.

1.3 Expenditure on food and drink in current prices

The average weekly expenditure on all food and drinks in FYE 2022 was £41.11 per person, an increase of 3.5% from £39.70 in FYE 2021. Total expenditure on household food and non-alcoholic drink decreased by 10.6% from £31.56 in FYE 2021 to £28.23 in FYE 2022 and was 0.3% lower than in FYE 2019. Since FYE 2019 household food and drink expenditure has increased by 0.2% from £32.12 to £32.17, while expenditure on food and drink eaten out has decreased by 38.2% from £14.46 to £8.94.

Chart 1.1: UK average expenditure on food and drink in current prices, per person per week, FYE 2022

Data for this chart is in the UK expenditure dataset, downloadable here.

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Tables 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 show expenditure in real terms, with the values adjusted to remove the effects of inflation. The figures are derived by deflating expenditure at current prices by the CPIH Index. The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) is the most comprehensive measure of inflation. It extends the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to include a measure of the costs associated with owning, maintaining and living in one’s own home, known as owner occupiers’ housing costs (OOH), along with Council Tax. Both are significant expenses for many households that are excluded from the CPI.

The Consumer Price Index including Owner Occupiers’ Housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.7% between 2020/21 and 2021/22 and rose by 6.3% between 2018/19 and 2021/22. Removing this overall rise in prices from the changes in expenditure on food and drink shows how expenditure in real terms has changed.

The data for this report is for the FYE 2022 and so would have finished at the end of March 2022 before inflation peaked.

Context: Food Prices

Food prices rose sharply during the economic crash in 2008, and in subsequent years food price inflation was generally higher than overall inflation. Food prices are driven by a number of factors, but international commodity and oil prices and exchange rates are significant ones.

In 2014, food price inflation (as measured by the Consumer Price Index) fell below overall inflation (based on the all items index), and food prices actually started to fall as inflation fell below 0%. This trend continued throughout 2015 and 2016, but food prices began to increase again at the start of 2017. This continued to increase however, all items inflation increased also during 2018 and 2019 and so the discrepancy was maintained. The discrepancy even grew larger as food inflation dipped slightly from April 2020 up until the end of the next financial year.

Family Food estimates generally show trends over the long term and short term spikes or depressions are smoothed out in the annual results. If the current short term picture with prices continues, as the sharp increases from 2007 did, then we can expect to see this reflected in shopping behaviour in future years.

Table 1.1: UK expenditure on food and drink in real terms, per person per week, FYE 2022

FYE 2018 FYE 2019 FYE 2020 FYE 2021 FYE 2022 % change since
FYE 2021
% change since FYE 2019
CPIH All Items L522 (FYE 2015 = 100) 104 106 108 109 113 3.7% 6.3%
Expenditure on household food and drink £34.07 £34.14 £34.22 £37.72 £32.17 -14.7% -5.8%
Expenditure on food and drink eaten out £15.11 £15.36 £15.95 £3.45 £8.94 159.3% -41.8%
Total expenditure on all food and drink £49.18 £49.50 £50.17 £41.16 £41.11 -0.1% -17.0%
% eaten out 31% 31% 32% 8% 22%    

Since FYE 2021, total expenditure in real terms on all food and drink has decreased by 0.1%, from £41.16 to £41.11 per person per week in FYE 2022. Expenditure on food and drink eaten out has increased by 159.3% from £3.45 in FYE 2021 to £8.94. Expenditure on all household food and drink has decreased by 14.7% from £37.72 to £32.17. 22% of expenditure on food and drink was spent on eating out in FYE 2022, up from 8% in FYE 2021.

Table 1.2: UK expenditure on food and non-alcoholic drink in real terms, per person per week, FYE 2022

FYE 2018 FYE 2019 FYE 2020 FYE 2021 FYE 2022 % change since
FYE 2021
% change since FYE 2019
CPIH All Items L522 (FYE 2015 = 100) 104 106 108 109 113 3.7% 6.3%
Expenditure on household food and non-alcoholic drink £29.89 £30.10 £30.13 £32.72 £28.23 -13.7% -6.2%
Expenditure on food and non-alcoholic drinks eaten out £11.56 £11.80 £12.28 £2.78 £6.80 144.3% -42.4%
Expenditure on all food and non-alcoholic drinks £41.45 £41.90 £42.41 £35.50 £35.02 -1.3% -16.4%
% eaten out 28% 28% 29% 8% 19%    

Expenditure on all food and non-alcoholic drinks in real terms has fallen by 1.3% from £35.50 per person per week in FYE 2021 to £35.02 in FYE 2022. Since FYE 2019, there has been a fall of 16.4%. Food and non-alcoholic drinks eaten out has risen by 144.3% in the last year from £2.78 in FYE 2021 to £6.80 in FYE 2022. However, since FYE 2019 there has been a fall of 42.4%. Expenditure on household food and non-alcoholic drinks has decreased since FYE 2021, from £32.72 to £28.23. Between FYE 2020 and FYE 2021, the amount spent increased from £30.13 to £32.72 (the first year of the pandemic).

Table 1.3: UK expenditure on alcoholic drink in real terms, per person per week, FYE 2022

FYE 2018 FYE 2019 FYE 2020 FYE 2021 FYE 2022 % change since
FYE 2021
% change since FYE 2019
CPIH All Items L522 (FYE 2015 = 100) 104 106 108 109 113 3.7% 6.3%
Expenditure on household alcoholic drinks £4.18 £4.04 £4.09 £5.00 £3.95 -21.0% -2.3%
Expenditure on alcoholic drinks eaten out £3.55 £3.56 £3.67 £0.66 £2.14 222.3% -39.9%
Expenditure on all alcoholic drinks £7.73 £7.60 £7.76 £5.66 £6.09 7.5% -19.9%
% eaten out 46% 47% 47% 12% 35%    

Expenditure on all alcoholic drinks increased by 7.5% between FYE 2021 and FYE 2022, from £5.66 per person per week to £6.09. Expenditure on alcoholic drinks consumed out of the home has risen by 222.3% between FYE 2021 and FYE 2022 from £0.66 to £2.14. Spending on alcoholic drinks for household consumption fell by 21.0% from £5.00 to £3.95 between FYE 2021 and 2022. Overall expenditure on alcoholic drinks has fallen since FYE 2019 by 19.9% and alcohol consumed out of the home now only makes up 35% of alcohol expenditure, compared to 47% in FYE 2019.

1.5 Indicator of affordability of food

The relative affordability of food can be measured by the share of the household expenditure going on food, i.e. the percentage of total household spending that goes on household food purchases. If the percentage increases over time, food is placing a greater burden on spending. Low-income households are of particular concern because they tend to have a greater percentage of spend going on food.

Table 1.4: Percentage of spend on household food and non-alcoholic drinks

Year Lowest 20% by equivalised disposable income All UK households
2008 16.8 10.8
2009 16.1 11.5
2010 15.8 11.2
2011 16.6 11.3
2012 16.2 11.6
2013 16.1 11.4
2014 16.4 11.1
FYE 2016 16 10.7
FYE 2017 14.4 10.5
FYE 2018 15.2 10.6
FYE 2019 14 10.6
FYE 2020 14.7 10.8
FYE 2021 18.3 14.4
FYE 2022 14.8 11.8

Notes:

  1. In 2015, the ONS shifted its measurements from annual to financial years (FYE 2016 value covers from April 2015 until March of 2016).

Source: ONS Family Spending in the UK

Latest data is in Table 3.2E5 of the Family Spending Workbook 1: detailed expenditure and trends, downloadable here.

In FYE 2022, an average household spent 11.8% of their expenditure on household food and non-alcoholic drink in the UK, while for the lowest 20% of households by equivalised disposable income it was higher at 14.8%. In FYE 2021, these figures were higher for both groups, at 14.4% and 18.3% respectively. FYE 2022 saw them return to more normal proportions seen over the last 10 years.

The increase in FYE 2021 was due in part to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, with hospitality and leisure businesses temporarily closing, and travel restrictions imposed. This meant that with the proportion of people’s expenditure on these items reducing dramatically during lockdowns, the proportion spent on other categories, including household food, increased. In FYE 2022 the actual expenditure, by average households, on household food decreased slightly from FYE 2021, while total expenditure increased.

The relative affordability of food can be measured by the share of the household budget that is spent on it. Low income households tend to spend a higher than average proportion of their expenditure on essential categories such as food, housing and energy and a lower proportion of their expenditure on non-essential items.

Although the percentage of spend on food has been relatively constant, the actual amount spent, and the products purchased will change in response to relative prices.

Using comparisons between low income households and all households it is possible to examine the greater effects food price rises may have on vulnerable groups in society. Low income is one of many reasons to be vulnerable in society but this group is used here as a proxy. In the context of this chapter, low income households are identified as those within the lowest 20% (quintile) of households by equivalised income, a measure of household income that accounts for differences in household size and composition.

Chart 1.2: Average share of spend in all households, FYE 2022

Main household expenditure categories Percentage (%)
Housing, fuel & power 16.6
Transport 14.1
Other expenditure items 13.8
Food & non-alcoholic drinks 11.8
Recreation & culture 10.6
Miscellaneous goods & services 7.7
Household goods & services 6.6
Restaurants & hotels 6.6
Communication 4
Clothing & footwear 3.3
Alcoholic drinks, tobacco & narcotics 2.3
Health 1.7
Education 1

Source: ONS Family Spending in the UK

Notes:

  1. Other expenditure includes housing costs, such as mortage interest paymments and council tax, licences, fines, holiday spending and money transfers and credit.
  2. Miscellaneous goods & services includes personal care, personal effects, social protection, insurance and some other services (more detailed breakdown in the Family Spending workbook attached in the source above).

In FYE 2022, the average household spent 11.8% of their expenditure on food and non-alcoholic drinks making it the 4th highest expenditure after housing, fuel and power, transport and other expenditure items.

This is significant as spend on food has fallen from second place in FYE 2021. It was likely elevated during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, due to the reduction in travel expenditure with travel restrictions imposed, and the increase in household food purchases with hospitablity businesses closed. With lockdowns lifted, these patterns returned to normal the following year.

1.6 Effects of food price rises

Food prices up to FYE 2022

In FYE 2022, the average CPIH food and non alcoholic beverage prices rose by 1.8%, below the CPIH all items rate of inflation which increased by 3.7%.

Chart 1.3 UK trend in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices in real terms (CPIH), January 1999 to March 2022

Source: Consumer Price Indices, (ONS)

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Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices in real terms were fairly stable between 2000 and 2007, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), before rising by 12% between July 2007 and February 2009. Prices then returned to real terms stability until February 2014. From a peak in February 2014, food prices fell steadily to October 2016. Over the next 4 years food prices then fluctuated until 2020 when they fell until the end of 2021. In early 2022 there was a slight uptick.

The data in this release covers the period up to March 2022. For current data on food and non-alcoholic drink, and overall prices, see the ONS website.

As this data is in real terms it reflects how food price inflation compares to overall inflation. If prices of other items have increased more than food, then real terms food prices would show a decrease.

Households can react in many ways to food price increases - they may simply spend more, or buy less of a type of product. They may also ‘trade down’ by switching to purchases of cheaper products within a food category . Family Food provides evidence-based estimates of changes in shopping behaviour in response to higher prices.

Go to Family Food FYE 2022: About Family Food

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2. Purchases

2.1 Overview

Comparisons over a long period of time provide a more reliable indication of change than a year- on- year comparison. Family Food long term datasets cover household and eating out purchases for a detailed set of food and drink types, and breakdowns by a number of characteristics including region, income, household composition and occupation, amongst others.

Context: Purchases estimates

It is a widely recognised characteristic of self-reported diary surveys such as Family Food that survey respondents tend to under report their purchases. Empirical comparisons of sales and duty data for alcohol in particular suggest that reported alcohol consumption could be 40-60% lower than the reality. For other food and drink, reporting is likely to be closer to actual purchases, but under-reporting is likely to feature and some food types may be under-reported to a greater extent than others.

Although such surveys are completely confidential, respondents may under report for a range of reasons, from self-consciousness to simply forgetting to record purchases. ‘Top up’ and eating out purchases are probably more likely to be missed than the main household shop. There is no evidence to say whether levels of under-reporting have changed over time, but it is plausible that changes in household shopping and eating patterns may have contributed to increased under-reporting.

The ONS had to make changes in the methodology due to the pandemic and as a result the collection of food diaries had to be shifted mostly online.

This may have resulted in differences in certain categories due to sampling adjustments rather than real effects.

There are much more data and analysis available about health and diet from Public Health England. For example, The National Diet and Nutrition survey (NDNS) has data that is focused on Nutrition and Calorific intake.

2.2 Household purchases

Table 2.1 shows the main food groups examined in this section. A detailed explanation of how these trends are calculated is available in the Methodology Papers.

Table 2.1: Quantities of household purchases of food and drink in the UK

Grams per person per week, except for liquids in millilitres, and eggs (number) (a)

Food group Units FYE 2018 FYE 2019 FYE 2020 FYE 2021 FYE 2022 % change since FYE 2021 % change since FYE 2019
Bread   527 521 524 502 465 -7.4 -10.7
Other cereals and cereal products   582 589 607 619 551 -11 -6.5
Meat   957 961 949 976 854 -12.5 -11.2
Fish   139 146 148 153 135 -11.9 -7.3
Milk (ml) 1786 1840 1746 1791 1635 -8.7 -11.1
Cheese   125 123 129 150 135 -9.9 9.1
Eggs (no.) 2 2 2 2 2 -5.1 -5.1
Fats   158 161 158 169 139 -17.8 -13.4
Fruit   1097 1106 1080 1159 1026 -11.5 -7.2
Vegetables (excluding potatoes)   1134 1139 1147 1275 1079 -15.4 -5.3
Potatoes (fresh and processed)   669 620 612 643 552 -14.2 -11
Sugar and preserves   99 93 87 108 83 -22.9 -10.4
Cakes, buns and pastries   159 151 163 158 165 4.6 9.4
Biscuits and crispbreads   160 159 173 165 162 -1.8 1.9
Confectionery   137 136 144 171 144 -15.7 6.1
Beverages   49 52 56 60 57 -5.2 9.9
Soft drinks (b) (ml) 1508 1642 1658 1812 1670 -7.8 1.7
Alcoholic drinks (ml) 728 712 728 876 703 -19.7 -1.3

(a) Milk includes milk products, beverages, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks are measured in millilitres, eggs are counted individually.

(b) Converted to unconcentrated equivalent by applying a factor of 5 to concentrated and low calorie concentrated soft drinks.

Purchases of the majority of household foods saw a clear decrease, with the most prominent being sugar, alcohol drinks, fats, confectionary and vegetables (excluding potatoes) that decreased by 22.9%, 19.7%, 17.8%, 15.7% and 15.4% respectively.

There was only one exception being cakes, buns and pastries which saw an increase in purchases of 4.6% in this most recent financial year.

Overall decrease in most items suggest that purchases have come back down to pre-pandemic levels after being elevated during the FYE 2021 due to households buying more to eat at home rather than eating out.

Since FYE 2019, there has been a decrease in purchases such as fats, meat, milk, potatoes, bread and sugar at 13.4%, 11.2%, 11.1%, 11%, 10.7% and 10.4% respectively.

Whereas, there has been an increase in purchases of beverages, cakes, buns and pastries, cheese and confectionary at 9.9%, 9.4%, 9.1% and 6.1% respectively.

2.3 Home-grown food

Table 2.2 Percentage of fruit and vegetables grown at home.

FYE 2018 FYE 2019 FYE 2020 FYE 2021 FYE 2022
Beans 34 18 29 19 10
Onions, leeks and shallots 3 1 3 2 1
Tomatoes 5 10 8 5 3
Potatoes 3 2 2 2 1
All other vegetables 3 3 2 2 1
Apples 6 9 7 4 1
Soft fruit 8 7 4 5 5
All other fruit 1 1 2 1 1
% of all fruit and vegetables 3 3 3 2 1
Eggs (a) 3 4 8 2 1

(a) As eggs are counted in whole numbers and not grams like the rest of the categories it is not appropriate to include them in the overall percentage when the units are different.

In FYE 2022, 1% of fresh fruit and vegetables entering the household came from free sources, mainly gardens and allotments. This is down from 2% in FYE 2021. This percentage is subject to year-on-year fluctuations depending on growing conditions in the UK, and also a lot of fruit and vegetables cannot home grown due to the UK climate. In FYE 2022, the percentage of eggs entering the household which were free or home produced was 1%.

2.4 Takeaway food and drink

Takeaway purchases for consumption within the home are classed as household purchases (see Methodology Papers).

Table 2.3 UK household quantities and expenditure in real terms on takeaway food brought home (a)

Purchases (grams) FYE 2018 FYE 2019 FYE 2020 FYE 2021 FYE 2022 % change since FYE 2021 % change since FYE 2019
Total Meat 55 53 57 43 31 -27.6 -41.7
Total Fish 10 10 9 9 6 -35.3 -38.8
Total Vegetables 43 40 45 37 24 -35.1 -40.5
Total Bread 4 5 6 4 4 -6.7 -25.5
Total Other Cereals 40 44 45 33 24 -26.5 -45.6
Total Miscellaneous 3 3 4 2 3 27.9 -12.7
Total 156 156 164 128 92 -28.3 -41.1
Expenditure in real terms (pence per person) FYE 2018 FYE 2019 FYE 2020 FYE 2021 FYE 2022 % change since FYE 2021 % change since FYE 2019
CPIH All Items D7BT (2015 = 100) 104 106 108 109 113 3.7 6.3
Total Meat 94 91 100 86 65 -24.7 -28.9
Total Fish 22 22 19 25 16 -35.1 -25.9
Total Vegetables 38 35 38 37 26 -29.1 -26.1
Total Bread 10 12 13 12 9 -24.1 -27.6
Total Other cereals 58 65 67 56 40 -29 -38.8
Total Miscellaneous 5 6 5 5 6 18.6 5.8
Total 227 232 243 221 162 -26.7 -30.1

(a) Purchases in grams per person per week, Expenditure in pence per person per week

Table 2.3 summarises the takeaway part of the major food groups. Between FYE 2021 and FYE 2022, purchases of takeaway food brought home decreased by 28.3%, and from FYE 2019 and FYE 2022 they decreased by 41.1%. Expenditure on takeaway foods in real terms was £1.62 per person per week in FYE 2022, 26.7% lower than in FYE 2021 when it was £2.21. Between FYE 2019 and FYE 2022 expenditure decreased by 30.1%, from £2.32 to £1.62.

3. Background notes

3.1 Financial year estimates

Financial year estimates

The latest results cover the financial year ending (FYE) 2022, in line with Family Spending, the ONS parent survey for Family Food, which switched to financial year reporting for FYE 2016 onwards. Comparisons between financial year estimates and previous calendar year ones are valid since both cover a full year of shopping activity. Generally Family Food exposes long term trends in consumer behaviour and year on year differences are not especially relevant. In the detailed datasets we have provided indicative estimates for FYE 2016 as well as the previously published 2015 calendar year estimates, for comparison.

3.2 COVID-19 and household food purchases

COVID-19 and household food purchases

The Covid-19 pandemic affected all parts of the economy in 2020, 2021 and even in 2022 and had a significant impact on businesses and consumer behaviour as a wide range of measures came into force.

During the lockdown measures in place for part of 2020, retail became the most important source of food for most consumers. Some food which would normally have gone through wholesale to the catering or school sectors was diverted on to retailers’ shelves. For part of this period, supermarkets and convenience stores were generally the only places to purchase food. Retailers implemented social distancing measures and strengthened their home delivery and ‘click and collect’ services, amongst others.

The hospitality sector was effectively paused for large parts of 2020 and the start of 2021. There were even regional differences in the range of restrictions within the UK. The Eat Out to Help Out scheme in August 2020 stimulated demand in the summer, but consumer caution around a second wave of infection towards the end of the year also influenced expenditure outside of the home.

The summer of 2021 saw a reopening, but there was a return to cautionary measures due to the onset of the Omicron variant over the Winter before having a much more restriction free year in 2022.

Go to the methodology page to learn more about how we produce Family Food

Go to Family Food FYE 2022: About Family Food

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