Rising food prices have consequences on the quality of food, especially for the most modest, while some manufacturers are replacing basic products in the composition of their processed products with cheaper substitutes.
According to INSEE at least in February, the rise in food prices over one year reached 14.5%. A figure well above the average inflation for all sectors combined, estimated at 6.2%. And the trend should continue.
This increase in prices on the shelves inevitably leads to a change in consumer baskets and in eating habits with the risk: a deterioration in the quality of the food consumed.
“The rise in prices creates an imbalance in terms of food”, agrees with BFMTV.com Noémie Hernandez, dietician-nutritionist, especially in the most modest households.
“Keeping a balanced diet”
During this period, the specialist observes that her patients are much more oriented towards starchy foods: pasta, rice, semolina… “It’s not expensive and it’s above all quick to cook,” he explains. She.
“It gives a lot of energy but today we don’t spend like back then, which creates a risk of significant weight gain”, adds Noémie Hernandez.
The latter also notes a drop in protein consumption in general, an increase in the purchase of canned vegetables and fruit and an increase in egg consumption.
In this inflationary context, Noémie Hernandez recommends “always trying to maintain a balanced diet”. “For example, if fresh fish is too expensive, we can turn to a little canned mackerel,” she explains.
“Pulses and grain mixes can also be very good substitutes for meat in a meal,” she continues.
“A marker of precariousness”
“We know that junk food is clearly a marker of precariousness, even before the health and economic crises, but inflation is aggravating this problem”, warns Karine Jacquemart, director of the association Foodwatch France, with the AFP.
According to a study by the League once morest Obesity, the obesity rate in France is 17% in 2023 once morest 8.5% in 1997. This figure rises to 18% among workers once morest 10% among senior executives. More generally, between 2000 and 2020, obesity increased by 2.5 points among executives and 9 points among workers.
“Junk food is at our doorstep”, regrets nutritionist Jean-Michel Cohen on BFMTV this Thursday.
With cheap inflation
The director of Foodwatch Francewhich calls for more transparency in prices and compositions, also warns: “With the soaring prices of certain ingredients, the risk is that manufacturers are tempted to replace them even more than before with substitutes cheaper”.
This phenomenon has a name: cheapflation, contraction of “cheap” (by expensive, low-end) and inflation. Practiced mainly by American manufacturers, it involves replacing basic products in the composition of prepared products with cheaper substitutes. This makes it possible to maintain its margins without increasing its costs in the face of inflation.
For example, in chocolate ice cream, cream and chocolate are removed to add more artificial flavors or in parmesan cheese: less cheese for more wood chip substitutes.
A practice that does not surprise Noémie Hernandez. “It existed in other countries like Australia and it’s not surprising that it happens in France,” she laments.
Prioritize raw products
The risk is then to degrade one’s diet, without necessarily realizing it, and to consume products that are less digestible, often fattier and sweeter. “We arrive at a poor diet which no longer provides the necessary nutrients and, on the contrary, stuffs us with unnecessary things like sugar”, explains the dietician-nutritionist.
Faced with rising food prices, Noémie Hernandez advises buying fewer industrial products, “which are more expensive than homemade”. Indeed, she recommends cooking as much as possible “especially in large quantities for those who do not have time”.
“To protect yourself from these cheapflation practices, you have to favor raw, cheaper and healthier foods. For example, instead of buying flavored yogurts, it is better to take a plain yogurt and add bits of fruit to it” , she explains.
In the long term, inflation risks reinforcing “social inequalities in health linked to food”, explains Nicole Darmon, research director at Inrae, to AFP, exposing the poorest to “less good protection once morest cardiovascular diseases and cancers”.