A nice piece to mark the 150th anniversary of food trade newspaper The Grocer shows how much cheaper food is now compared to when the paper first started.

According to BBC News: ‘Groceries today cost one-thirteenth of what they did 150 years ago, according to a study from The Grocer magazine. The magazine applied an inflation measure to the 1862 prices of 33 items including eggs, hot chocolate, bread, grapes, a toothbrush and sherry. The weekly basket of food, drink and household items priced at £93.95 now would have cost an 1862 shopper £1,254.17 in real terms.’

The biggest differences were in imported foods. So, for example, ‘This week a pineapple cost an average of £1.72 but in 1862 it sold for 5s - estimated to cost £149 in real terms.’

1862 v 2012 prices in real terms

Pineapple: 8,553% higher
Grapes 1kg: 7,419% higher
Melon: 5,972% higher
Tea 250g: 2,713% higher
Butter 250g: 1,138% higher
Bread 800g: 451% higher

That exotic foods have fallen so greatly in price is no surprise (though the scale of the fall is amazing). But even for common foods like bread and butter, the dent that such things make in the average pay packet is far smaller.

The Grocer puts these changes mostly down to food imports and rising living standards, but surely massively more efficient production would have been key, too?

Groceries 'cheaper' now than in 1862, Grocer magazine finds, BBC News