UK food price inflation has seen a minor dip from its near-record high of over 19 per cent in the 12 months to May.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), food inflation has now fallen to 18.3 per cent.

In light of a recent ONS bulletin, which found that around half of adults said they were buying less when shopping for food, the slight drop is being viewed by industry as a positive sign.

Karen Betts, chief executive of the Food & Drink Federation, deemed the drop-off as “encouraging”, while Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, called the stats a “positive sign”, noting that the fall was the first time two consecutive inflation dips had occurred since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

“While some prices continue to rise, we are now seeing regular news reports of falling prices on many essential products, such as loo rolls and vegetable oil,” Dickinson said. “It has been good to see larger drops in inflation rates for flour, milk and eggs as retailers continue to invest heavily in lower prices for the future and locking the price of many essentials, helping the UK to deliver some of the cheapest groceries in Europe.”

With inflation easing, Tesco has been to reduce the cost of some of its goods while Morrisons recently announced it has cut the cost of over 500 items.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak recently walked back plans to introduce a voluntary price cap for supermarkets. The touted plans drew the ire of the BRC, which said such measures would not bring about any significant changes or provide real support for cost-conscious Brits.

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