IT is an irony of our time that just as food has assumed five-star celebrity status in the world of entertainment, far too many people view the prospect of turning a slipper of bacon, and a head of Savoy cabbage, into a dinner much as the Spartans viewed the Persian armies advancing on the Pass of Thermopylae in 480BC.

Low-income households need to spend at least one quarter of their income to afford to buy a basket of healthy food.