Food prices are increasingly becoming a concern among Brits as 74% cited it as a ‘top five’ worry in November 2022, up from 52% the year before, new research shows.

According to data from climate action NGO Wrap, the number of people concerned about being able to buy enough food also increased in 2022 from 18% to 25%.

This comes as grocery price inflation rose to 17.1% in the four weeks to 19 February, the highest level ever recorded by Kantar.

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

As a result, Wrap found that people are making widespread changes to their shopping habits to mitigate rising costs, including how they buy, store, manage or use food for 71%, up from 65% in June 2022.

The cost-of-living crisis has also caused people to eat out less.

However, this has led to more food being wasted compared with two years ago, with research showing that portion size is the main reason for plate waste across 48% of consumers.

Wrap is currently running Food Waste Action Week, focusing on a theme of ‘Win. Don’t Bin‘ and urging people to make their food go further by using up all leftovers.

This comes as 4.5 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away each year by UK households.