BRITISH DIET CHANGING

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29714, 6 January 1962, Page 2

BRITISH DIET CHANGING

More Spent On Quality Food

(Special CrspM N.Z.P.A

LONDON, Jan. 5.

Britons spent a larger part of their household budgets on food in 1960 than they did in 1959. but most of the rise was due to a growing taste for more expensive highly-processed foods and foods of better quality. This is one of the findings of a national food survey report published by the Government It says that the estimated weekly spending on food for the home went up from an average of 29s 3d a person in 1959 to 29s 8d in 1960. This 1.2 per cent rise was accompanied by a fall of 7 per cent, in the genera! level of retail food prices, implying a rise of nearly 2 per cent in what was spent a person on household food Very little of this rise, however, was attributable to an increase in the quantity of food consumed. Most of it was caused by the continued shift in demand from staple foods to processed and "quality" foods.

Between 1955 and 1960. spending on "convenience foods.” which relieve housewives of work in preparation for the table, rose by 31 per cent., compared with a rise of only 125 per cent., on all other foods

Poultry appeared increasingly on the family table. In 1956. poultry cost an average of 5s per lb. and in 1960 it was only 3s Ud per lb. Carcase meat went up from 3s 4d per lb. to 3s lOd in the same period. The decline in carcase meat consumption was very largely due to in along each side against the lower beef imports.