Consumer pessimism over food prices has rocketed, with the vast majority of shoppers bracing themselves for bigger shopping bills and many already switching to the cheapest own-label products.

Over 90% of more than 1,000 shoppers polled by the IGD for the body’s latest monthly ShopperTrack survey said they expect food prices to rise further.

A third of those polled was even more pessimistic, saying their shopping would become “much more expensive”.

Less than one in five were so downbeat in the equivalent poll just four months ago. But a series of headlines over rising commodity prices and shopping bills has sapped confidence in retailers’ ability to keep prices low.

As a result, one in four shoppers is now vowing to buy more of the lowest-priced supermarket own-label products to make ends meet, compared with less than one in five in the October ShopperTrack survey.

“There’s been widespread media coverage of rising commodity prices and the pressures it is placing on the cost of food,” said IGD chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch. “We see the effect of this coming through in our shopper research,”

She added: “This pressure, combined with higher living costs, is causing shoppers to reassess how they spend their money.”

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