Why It Matters
Food Amenity Prices
Summary
We have measured how much is spent on food per year in £mn in a selected postcode.
Definition
| Dataset | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Postcode average food amenity price | The amount spent per year on food in a chosen postcode. |
| Borough average food amenity price | The average amount spent on food per year out of all the postcodes in a chosen borough. |
| Borough median food amenity price | The median amount spent on food per year out of all the postcodes in a chosen borough. |
| London-wide average food amenity price | The average amount spent on food per year out of all the postcodes in London. |
| London-wide median food amenity price | The median amount spent on food per year out of all the postcodes in London. |
| Postcode deviation from the London-wide average food amenity price | How much in £mn the chosen postcode deviates from the London-wide average spent on food per year. |
| Z-score of postcode average food amenity price | Tells you the number of standard deviations that the selected postcode’s food amenity price differs from the London-wide average. |
| Harmonised score of food amenity prices | A relative score out of 100 which ordinally scales a neighbourhood’s food expenditure. A score of one indicates the lovest food expenditure in London whilst a score of 100 indicates the highest. |
| Harmonised score quartile | Shows which quartile a selected postcode’s water consumption falls within. |
Why the metric matters from commercial inhabitant’s perspective?
From a commercial perspective, the importance of understanding how much a local household spends on food is obvious. If you are a small retailer or grocer, knowing what to stock and how to price it so that it is affordable for the local population is necessary for running a viable business.
Similarly, a chain supermarket should consider the food expenditure of households for an area in which they are considering opening a branch. In neighbourhoods that spend more per household on food one may expect to see more expensive supermarkets such as Waitrose or M&S, whereas those with a lower food expenditure will be targeted by budget chains like Aldi or Lidl.
Eateries, be they fast food retailers, cafés or restaurants may also take an interest in the amount certain localities spend on food to consider whether it would be viable to open there. While customers are willing to travel to a well-known, high end restaurant, others may prefer opening in areas with higher food expenditure to target local custom, while fast food businesses may prefer to target those who tend not to spend much on food.
Levels of food expenditure will likely correlate with other metrics, such as income, population density, and socio-economic classification.
Why the metric matters from the residential inhabitant’s perspective?
Like commercial inhabitants, the reasons for residential inhabitants to take an interest in local food prices is obvious. If an area tends to spent little on food it is likely that the price of food in that area will be lower in general, and on the other hand if food expenditure is high, food prices will probably reflect that.
Furthermore, there will be a higher likelihood of higher-end restaurants and upmarket supermarkets and cafés in areas with high food expenditure compared to those whose are lower. In these areas one will be more likely to see a higher rate of fast food retailers.
Less obviously, but very importantly, one’s quality of food is strongly linked to their health due to their intake of important vitamins and minerals, as well as food’s ability to provide energy. It may be likely that residents of an area with low food expenditure may have restricted access to a quality nutritious diet, and therefore may experience a lower quality of health. Feelings of hunger and a lack of nutritious meals can have negative effects on mood and can raise levels of, and a poor diet also has dramatic effects on the ability to develop both mentally and physically, being directly linked to poor performance in school.
General Commentary
Behind ‘quality/freshness’, the Pan-European Survey of Consumer Attitudes to Food, Nutrition and Health found that ‘price’ played the most important role in determining one’s food choices. Given the current climate it is likely this factor will rise up much of the country’s list of importance in the months and years to come.
Food prices have ballooned since the pandemic, having, by the end of 2021, inflated by 2.1% since the summer of 2020, and hospitality firms have seen their costs rise by up to 18%. These increases are set to continue to such a degree that the Food and Drink Federation described them as “terrifying”, with others telling consumers to expect further inflation in 2022. Many supermarkets are worried that the rising costs will encourage customers to look to cheaper stores, with shoppers already increasing the number of supermarkets they visit to three in order to find the best deals.
This rise can be linked to a spiralling production costs of food manufacturers, a dwindling pool of farm and food production workers, as well as supply chain issues. These include problems with international shipping such as rising container costs due to the pandemic and fuel shortages, the latter of which also effects HGV deliveries, for which there is also a stark shortage of drivers due to changes in immigration rules and pay.
Some industry leaders believe this problem won’t go away any time soon and may perhaps get worse, meaning Britons may have to adapt to a shortage of available options.
Trivia
The country with the largest food intake is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the USA, with the average American eating on average 3,800 kilocalories per day! The UK by comparison eats 3,450 kilocalories per day per capita, and the lowest calorific intake can be found in Eritrea, where residents eat just 1,590 kilocalories per day.
History
For a nation whose food is much maligned by its European neighbours, Britiain’s culinary traditions are actually rather extensive and has been influenced by much of the world’s cuisine. Cherries, nettles, cabbages and peas were all brought over by the Romans, who also improved Britain’s corn crops, built roads to enable intercity supply lines, and of course introduced wine!
In about 800AD the Vikings invaded and with them came techniques for smoking and drying fish and meats, only to be followed by the Normans who conquered Britain in 1066 and added a French twist to how people referred to their food. Mouton became mutton, porc became pork, boeuf beef, veau veal.. you get the picture.
Oranges and lemons were brough back from the crusades of the 12th century, along with herbs and spices from the Middle East. As the British Empire began to expand its reach across the globe, items like sugar from the Caribbean, spices and rice from East Asia, tea from India and coffee from South America became staples of middle and upper class diets. Millions of tonnes of potatoes were brought from North America along with turkey in the 16th century, meaning that our traditional Christmas roast is, like much of British culture today, really an American import!
The rationing and changes in employment following the Second World War meant that working class culinary traditions began to die out and, combined with improvements to international travel and increased literature from abroad, were superseded by foreign cuisines. This is notable in the rise in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influence on British diets following the war, and the introduction of Caribbean food with those who arrived as part of the Windrush Generation.
But perhaps the most prominent addition to the British table was Indian food. Already greatly tied into the Indian culinary world through its colonial legacy and the migration that resulted from it, Britain had fallen in love with curry by the 1970s. Invented in 1971, the chicken tikka masala is now considered a true British classic!