Abstract
The population of UK is set to increase by over 2 million to almost 62 million over the next 10 years. Increased life expectancy and declining birth rates are leading to an increasingly elderly population and this trend is set to continue as the large numbers of 'baby boomers' reach retirement age. Eventually there will be fewer people of working age, which will impact on the Government's ability to provide a state pension for the increasing numbers of retired people. For those unable to make alternative provision, retirement may therefore also mean becoming accustomed to a substantially reduced disposable income. Furthermore, an increasing number of people will enter retirement without dependents or partners, and this will lead to an increase in the numbers of elderly people living alone. And as those people become unable to manage on their own, the need for residential care will increase. This is about to have an impact on food consumption in the country.
As fewer and fewer people choose to marry or settle with a partner, or do so at a later age, and more of those who do marry divorce each other, the number of younger adults living alone will also increase, although this will be balanced in part by the number of young adults forced to remain living at home with parents, due to the predicted shortage of affordable housing, particularly in rural areas.
In 2001, it was analyzed that spending on food is rarely sacrificed for other spending, except in very low-income households. However, as disposable income increases, so do both expenditure and consumption. There is a limit to consumption of course, but even when this limit is reached, per capita expenditure on food continues to increase with disposable income levels. In other words, with increasing wealth, people not only choose to eat more, but also choose more expensive food. Even so, wealthier households spend a smaller proportion of their disposable income on food than the less well off, as their increasing wealth allows them to spend more on other luxuries.
With increasing affluence and a relatively stable economy over recent years, the UK has seen the shift take place in food purchasing patterns towards increasingly expensive food items rather than the more ordinary. However, food expenditure as a proportion of overall expenditure has decreased to less than 10%. According to a recent study, people in the UK spend less of their disposable income on food than any other European country.
Keywords: food rationing UK, whole food market, organic food market, Restaurant, famous UK food brands, Wholesale food market.
