Food companies accused of taking shoppers 'for mugs'

MPs have accused food companies of taking British consumers for mugs” during a testy exchange over profits made during the cost of living crisis.

- JOSIE CLARKE

Unilever and Kraft Heinz were among the companies giving evidence in parliament in the fairness in the food supply chain inquiry before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee.

Addressing Dominic Hawkins, head of UK supply chains at Kraft Heinz, committee member Barry Gardiner said: “Eight out of the top 10 food manufacturers, including Unilever, including Associated British Foods, made £23bn of profit post-pandemic to pre-pandemic. Only 11 per cent of public limited companies actually saw their profits increase during that period.

“The public is fair-minded and they say fine, if the input costs have increased we expect that those will be passed on. But if all you were doing was passing on the increased costs of your supply chain, then they expect your profits to stay roughly the same.

“But Mr Hawkins, if I look at the report from IPPR that looked at your company Kraft, it saw your profits rise from £265m to £1.8bn – that’s 6.79 times as much profit. How do you justify that to a family that’s struggling?”