Just returned from the UK. We stopped at the Cobham services on the M25 (Starbucks) and had to pay £8.40 for 2 coffees which being Starbucks were pretty revolting. I thought they were mistaken but no, £8.40 for 2 coffees - wow!
I remember the taste well, bread being a staple for me as a very choosey teen.
Have had to stop eating sliced packaged white bread here, it made my stomach blow up terrible, never happened before so stopped buying it for the odd sandwich and toast and belly has deflated. They must be adding stuff to make it bigger 
I’m a little surprised that white bread and not the profiteering is what everyone notes from the food rising prices article!
Ordinary white British breads do that to me now, as do cakes and pastries in significant amounts (and they also increase ‘throughput’). Being older and less food-tolerant is not ideal, but I’m grateful not to have to eat rubbish because that’s all I could afford.
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I read the article this morning and also read the readers’ many comments, which were perhaps the more informative. Had the following anecdotal conclusions
Felt the items surveyed were too broad and generalised to tell one much beyond what I already suspected namely that industrially processed foods are the principal drivers of food inflation. UK shoppers, like Americans tend to buy everything from supermarkets that have incredibly long and complex supply chains, and that’s before one includes today’s UK/AUS/NZ trade deal that will be shipping frozen lamb halfway round the world (to the detriment of formerly EU subsidised British hill farmers).
By contrast like many in southern Europe, we still mainly shop locally and seasonally on markets, also buying direct from producteurs. Consequently many changes in prices tend to be the reverse, the first week of a new season, veg is pricey, but a couple of weeks later prices have dropped. Our local tomato season is due to begin any day and we’ll only be buying very local fresh tomatoes until the end of October.
Lastly, whenever I go in a supermarket I’m struck by the much higher percentage of obese people one sees, compared to on the local outdoor markets - have never seen any comparative stats, so it’s purely anecdotal, but…
Re bread and internal inflation, I think many people are intolerant (and rightly so) of the rising agents used in industrial bread. Recommend pain au levain (sourdough) made by traditional methods.
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Mistake 1: Stopping at Cobham Services. 
Mistake 2: Buying coffee at Starbucks.
(I know, sometimes it’ s a case of “any port in a storm”.)
Good thing you didn’t go to fill up at the petrol station at Cobham, you’d have had a coronary!! UK motorway services’ petrol prices are truly scandalous!
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The margins paid across the chain is definitely a large part of the problem.
Living in UK I would habitually check the country of origin for ‘fresh’ fruit and veg at Waitrose. There really wasn’t any choice. If you wanted string beans, they were literally from Kenya. Couldn’t be much good for the carbon footprint!
I have long made an effort to buy milk directly from the farmer, something that was possible via a traditional milk truck in Cheltenham. I am now trying to do that here in France and unable to locate any of the direct supply listed earlier on SF, am making do through our local épicerie with some from Normandy that I’m told clears 70% for the farmer.
I suspect that the obesity problem is more due to processed foods that require very little or no preparation. The other difficulty is that the low cost bulk fillers are starches rather than protein. Added to greatly reduced physical exertion is literally, the recipe for disaster.
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In Spain the leading brand is Pan Bimbo.
I suppose baguette is French poverty food? I mean, they can’t even afford the additives.
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We plan to take the bread makers, but also now feel tempted to keep it in the UK because we like the bread.
Yes, a dilemma for us too, because while we love breadmaker bread, we also love the local product and also would want to support local business.
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I think there’s room for both the home-bread-maker and the professional local baker…
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It depends on how far you are from the boulangerie.
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It’s sold by Leclerc too, I’m not a fan of it but OH seems to like it (probably because it’s expensive 
)
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I find its only good for toast, its so thick and claggy it sticks to your teeth for ordinary sandwiches. Not cheap at nearly €2 but a change. I have given up eating sliced bread or any bread for the past few weeks, my stomach is not bloated and I seem more energetic than when I was regularly consuming it most days one way or another.
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I think there’s room for 2 bread machines…one in each country
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