Kids Food Guarantee Update Wholegrains, Fruit, and Vegetables - August 2024

The cost of buying a week’s worth of low cost fruit and veg has increased this year, disproportionately impacting low income families, although the price of low cost wholegrain carbohydrates has seen a welcome fall in price.

• The price of the lowest cost fruits and vegetables has increased since November 2023
• The majority of available options remain white, refined products, with just 16% of available staple carbohydrates wholegrain, brown or 50:50
• Iceland, Aldi and Co-op once again have the smallest proportion of wholegrain options and Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco the largest.
• Across all four categories, the average price of wholegrain and brown products remains higher than their white, refined equivalents. Encouragingly, the price of wholegrain bread, noodle and pasta products is decreasing.

Recommendations

Retailers offer fruit and veg at a competitive price but lower income citizens are likely to be struggling to afford enough fruit and veg. Additionally, the very lowest priced products often contain added salt and/or sugar and are not always readily available in stores.

While it’s promising to see the cost of wholegrain products coming down in the noodle, pasta and bread categories compared to the white, refined carbohydrate equivalent, retailers and manufactures ought to increase the availability of wholegrain options across all categories.