The anti-inflation quarter has “not kept its promises”, deplores Thursday the consumer defense association Familles Rurales, which noted a price increase of 3% on a basket of “healthy” products respecting the recommendations of the authorities. sanitary. Familles Rurales has developed a basket of 34 products – “the most accessible possible both in terms of cost and seasonality” – responding to the recommendations of the “National Health Nutrition Plan (PNNS)” which, for example, encourages eating five fruits and vegetables a day, or fish twice a week.
This basket is thus made up of bananas, apples, carrots, oranges, green lentils, wholemeal bread, pasta, rice, flour, potatoes, semi-skimmed milk, Comté cheese, plain yoghurts, chicken fillets, white ham, coalfish, eggs, olive oil, butter, sugar, jam, chocolate, coffee, etc. “The anti-inflation quarter didn’t deliver on our healthy food basket. Its price increased by 3% between February and April”, denounces Familles Rurales, which details in its Food Price Observatory having noted a 2.7% increase over this period for “first prices” (mainly brands distributors) and 4.3% for national brands. In total, between April 2022 and April 2023, its “healthy” basket increased “by 15.9%”.
In an attempt to contain food inflation, the government had announced with several brands – with the notable exception of E.Leclerc – an “anti-inflation quarter” from March 15, a commercial operation in the context of which supermarkets committed to selling a selection of products at the “lowest possible price”. Familles Rurales believes that “the reductions did not affect all the products and in particular those recommended by the PNNS. The profusion of commercial operations set up by distributors during the anti-inflation quarter has sown confusion in the choices to be made and made price comparison even more opaque”.
“The posture of several industrialists and part of the mass distribution has consisted in pushing the purchase of processed and ultra-processed products via promotional operations”, to the detriment of “healthier foods for health which have no not benefited from the same efforts on prices”, denounces the association. Consequently, she asks the State to “intervene”, judging that it “must no longer be the spectator of a fool’s game where each accuses the other of taking the lion’s share to the detriment of consumers. “, because “eating healthy, to stay healthy, has become mission impossible for millions of French households”.