Soaring cost of a full fry-up puts Brits off their breakfast

● A full-English fry-up is now 20% more expensive than a year ago — a stark example of how rampant food price inflation is chipping away at household budgets.

Just a day after Britain’s inflation level hit double digits once more, the latest Bloomberg breakfast index shows how every ingredient is now much more costly than a year ago.

Coffee, which experienced the biggest uplift in prices in September, is about 22% dearer than the same time last year. All the ingredients that make up a full English, except mushrooms, have similarly experienced double-digit price inflation over the past year. And even mushrooms are up 5%.

Crunching data from the Office for National Statistics, the index tracks the prices of some of the key ingredients in a full English — sausages, bacon, eggs, bread, butter, tomatoes, mushrooms, milk, tea and coffee. It gives a taste of the realworld impact of inflation on consumers with food prices driving the latest leap in everyday costs.

“Food inflation is pushing hard on consumers and businesses alike,” said James Brown, UK managing partner at consulting firm Simon-Kucher & Partners in London.

“We’ve yet to see all businesses pass on the rising costs, so further price increases as we enter the Christmas shopping season are inevitable.”

The total cost to make an English breakfast has risen to £32.95 (about R677), the index shows. Milk has leapt 44% from a year ago while butter has increased 27% and eggs have gained 23%.

Soaring food prices have driven UK inflation back into double digits, with a 10.1% increase in September matching a 40-year high reached in July and exceeding economists’ expectations.

Policymakers are under increasing pressure to lift the key rate next month to tackle the problem.

Chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt set out measures earlier this week that remove £32bn of giveaways previously promised by Prime Minister Liz Truss. —