// Iceland says that amid the cost of living crisis, families are no longer bulk-buying frozen food over fears freezers can’t be left running
// Last month 3.2 million people in Britain ran out of credit on their prepayment meter last year – the equivalent of one every ten seconds
Iceland has said that households struggling with the high cost of living have stopped bulk-buying frozen food amid fears they may not be able to afford to keep their freezers running, the Times reports.
Stuart Lendrum, head of product and process at the frozen food specialist said some people “are avoiding stocking up on frozen food because of the risk of not having enough money to put in their energy prepayment meter”.
Speaking at the Food Foundation investor summit, he said: “We think of the benefits of frozen foods, but if you’re dealing with that it really brings to light the challenges. You’ve got the risk of losing all the money you’ve put into the frozen food.”
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Last month food price inflation reached the highest level since 2008, as grocery price inflation hit a record 16.7% in the four weeks to January 22 – adding an extra £788 to UK shopping bills, according to Kantar.
A report by Citizens Advice in January said that an estimated 3.2 million people in Britain ran out of credit on their prepayment meter last year, the equivalent of one every ten seconds.
Lendrum also argued against proposals to force supermarkets to stop selling multibuy deals. “We don’t think that right now we should restrict multibuys of high-fat, salt, sugar foods because we know that people are already struggling,” he said.
“For us, ensuring customers can eat takes the highest priority. And for us, that is a higher priority than people being penalised for not being healthier.”
Last month the retailer said it planned to scale back the amount of chilled food it sells in an effort to reduce its own energy bills.
“We probably got a bit carried away in the pandemic with the amount of chilled products we had available so we’re just really scaling our chilled proposition back slightly,” Iceland finance director, Richard Ewen said.
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