The rising prices make it hard to afford! Bring your own lunch and eat cheaper food instead

Are rising prices really unbearable? According to a magazine survey, in an era when wages and food prices are seriously out of sync, "not being able to afford food" has become a hidden concern for Taiwanese people. As many as 60% of Taiwanese people are aware of the price increase and their wallets are hurt, with food expenses increasing by NT$2,520 per month. In addition, people are still dissatisfied with Taiwan's food safety environment, giving it only 4.5 points.

A magazine survey found that when faced with rising food prices, how would people respond? The most popular answer was "find a cheaper alternative".

According to a report titled "An Affordable Future" conducted by Foresight Magazine, 60.7% of people believe that food has become more and more expensive in Taiwan over the past year. Among them, girls are more sensitive than boys. When we further questioned those people who "felt" the increase in food consumption and asked them to think back to the past and present (at least one year), we found that it was 84 yuan more per day. Considering the current meal consumption of 77 yuan, this means that they have to spend one more meal a day now than in the past. If converted to per meal, it means that Taiwanese people now have to spend 28 yuan more per meal. When the daily food consumption amount is further converted into monthly expenditure, the current average monthly expenditure is about 6,892 yuan.

Young people don't feel the price increase, while the middle-aged and elderly feel it is a burden

Although the survey shows that only 34.6% of the people admit that their current food expenses have become a burden on them, further cross-analysis with the respondents' income found that the lower the salary, the greater the sense of pressure. Among them, nearly half (49.2%) of those with a monthly salary of less than 20,000 yuan feel that the burden is heavy. This shows that for the middle class with low incomes, eating more and more expensive food still makes them feel stressed.

The survey also shows that the "sense of burden" caused by food expenses becomes deeper almost as people get older. Among them, only 20.4% of those aged 20 to 29 felt the burden was heavy, while 29.1% of those aged 30 to 39 felt the burden, and the number increased to 39.4% of those aged 40 to 49. As many as 47% of those aged 60 and above felt the burden. It can be inferred from this that young people usually don't care much about money. Therefore, newcomers in their 20s don't care much about food expenses even if their salary is not high. The older they are, the more frugal they are, and the food expenses can easily be felt by the older group.

As for the "sense of burden" caused by food expenses, as many as 47% of people aged 60 and above feel it is a burden.

What to do when prices rise? More than 50% of people bring their own lunch boxes to cope with the pandemic

In order to cope with the soaring prices, when asked, how would you respond when faced with rising food prices? The most popular answer was "find cheaper alternatives", accounting for 64.6%; followed by "cooking at home or bringing lunch", accounting for 51.1%.

More than 60% of people believe that food safety has not improved

In addition, what is your evaluation of the current food safety environment? The public was asked to rate the current food safety score on a scale of 1 to 10, and it was found that the average score was only 4.5, which is clearly failing. What’s more, 68.8% of the people believe that Taiwan’s food safety environment has not improved, which shows that Taiwanese people still have concerns about food safety.

Finally, I would like to ask, have the food safety incidents in recent years changed people’s eating habits? The largest number of people responded by "eating less processed food", accounting for 45.4%, followed by 44.2% who chose to eat less. In other words, most people still faced the issue with an avoidant attitude.