Expert: Price of food will increase over use of oil in production stages

A LEADING food expert said oil is increasingly pricing food beyond the means of growing numbers of families.

Professor Martin Caraher told an international home economics conference that a shopping basket of food should only cost €20 but it costs €35 because of the use of oil in almost every stage of its production.

Professor Caraher, who specialises in food and health policy at City University, London, and is on an Irish Government food review body, told the conference at St Angela’s College, Sligo: “The current food system is over-reliant on oil; oil to grow, process and transport food.