Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the proportion of food inflation that is due to the increased cost of food packaging; and what steps her Department is taking to help reduce these costs.

Tackling inflation is this government’s number one priority, with a plan to more than halve inflation this year, and we’re monitoring all key agricultural commodities so that we can work with the food industry to address the challenges they face.

Consumer food prices depend on a range of factors including agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, as well as Sterling exchange rates.

Defra does not have data on packaging costs, however as packaging is only one component of manufacturing costs it will only represent a fraction of a percent in terms of the impact on inflation.