Grocery inflation has accelerated again, placing renewed strain on household budgets as food price rises picked up in February.
Figures from Worldpanel by Numerator show that grocery price inflation reached 4.3 per cent in February, up from four per cent in January.
The increase follows four consecutive months during which shoppers had experienced easing price pressures at the tills.
The latest rise means households are paying more for their weekly shop than they were at the same point last year, reversing the recent downward trend in food inflation.
The data indicates that pressure on supermarket bills has intensified at a time when many families continue to manage higher living costs.
Spending patterns around Valentine’s Day highlighted a willingness among shoppers to spend despite broader budget constraints.
Nearly 12 per cent of households purchased a premium meal deal on the Friday evening itself, according to the same dataset.
Consumers spent a combined £39million on upmarket meal deals priced at £10 or more during the week, representing a sevenfold increase compared with the previous week.
Food price rises accelerate in February
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The figures show that while some purchases were made close to the day itself, spending on celebratory meals remained strong.
Seasonal events also drove sharp movements in specific product categories during the period.
Sales of ready-made pancake mixes rose by 114 per cent in the run-up to Shrove Tuesday compared with the week before.
Shoppers choosing to prepare pancakes from scratch faced higher costs for staple ingredients.
Price pressures are especially evident in confectionery
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The combined price of key ingredients reached £7.77, which is 42p higher than a year earlier and represents an increase of nearly 6 per cent.
With Easter approaching, price pressures are also evident in confectionery.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel, said: “Looking ahead to Easter, shoppers will notice that chocolate prices remain high, up 9.3 per cent year on year.”
He added: “While this is still a significant rise, the pace of inflation in the category is beginning to ease and is now at its lowest level since September 2025.”
Online grocery shopping continued to build momentum over the period, with sales through digital platforms rising 9.7 per cent year on year.
Over the latest four‑week window, shoppers placed more than 18 million online grocery orders, lifting online’s share of the total market to 13 per cent — its highest level since July 2021.
Adoption remained strongest among higher‑income households in London and the South East, but the data suggests that online usage is now spreading well beyond these groups.
As Mr McKevitt noted, online shopping’s appeal is widening, with shoppers from a broader range of economic backgrounds increasingly drawn to its convenience.