UK Grocery Price Report: September 2026
The headline: overall UK inflation jumped to 3.5% year over year in September 2026, up from 3.1% in August and the highest rate since October 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics. But groceries did not do it. Prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 1.3% in the 12 months to September, unchanged from August, and actually fell 0.2% in the month. The pain is at the pump, not the checkout.
This report covers the food detail of the September 2026 release, published by the ONS on 21 October 2026: the categories rising fastest, the 16 of 49 food categories that fell, and what the split means for a weekly shop.
The headline: inflation jumped, food didn't
The all-items CPI rose 3.5% year over year in September 2026 and 0.4% in the month alone. CPIH, the ONS's broader measure including housing costs, rose 3.6%, up from 3.3% in August. Core CPI, excluding energy and food, rose 2.8%, up from 2.6%.
The jump was transport-led. Transport prices rose 6.6% year over year, up from 4.6% in August, and motor fuels rose 29.8% year over year. The average petrol price was 169.5p per litre and diesel 192.5p per litre, the highest since summer 2022.
Food, by contrast, was the calm division: 1.3% year over year, exactly the August rate, with a 0.2% fall in September itself, the same monthly fall as September 2025. When the headline screams, check the division your budget actually lives in.
The risers: fish pulls away
Fish is the runaway category: up 11.4% year over year in September 2026, nearly double the 6.6% rate it posted in August. No other food category comes close to that jump in a single month of releases.
The other fast risers are all in or near the same aisle: water up 10.8%, frozen seafood up 10.0%, and preserved fruit up 6.2% year over year.
If your basket leans on fish and seafood, your personal food inflation is running far hotter than the 1.3% headline for the food division as a whole. Everyone else's is running cooler.
What got cheaper
Sixteen of the 49 food categories the ONS tracks fell in price over the year. The largest drops: butter down 6.2%, pizza down 5.6%, fruit and vegetable juices down 3.0%, and cheese down 2.3% year over year.
The British Retail Consortium's read on the release is that supermarket competition held food prices steady despite producer cost pressure, with the stability anchored by price drops in butter, coffee and potatoes.
Falling categories matter more than slowing ones: a fall is an actual price cut compared with a year ago, not just a smaller increase.
What this means for a weekly shop
A 1.3% annual food rate means the average basket costs about £1.30 more per £100 than a year ago, the same maths as August because the rate did not move. The story this month is the split inside the basket: double-digit rises in fish against real falls in butter, pizza, juices and cheese.
Our most recent shelf check, on October 19, 2026, priced six identical staples at three supermarkets: Tesco £15.12, Sainsbury's £15.62 and Asda £16.23. Those are October shelf prices, not September CPI data; the CPI measures how prices changed across the country, and our weekly tracker, linked below, records what specific items cost at specific stores.
What to watch next month
The Food and Drink Federation warns that producer and input costs are building underneath the calm shelf prices: diesel is up 41% since February and gas futures up 166%, and the federation expects those costs to reach shelf prices into next year. Calm now, pressure building is the honest summary.
We will publish the October report when the ONS releases the next CPI, expected in mid to late November 2026, and we update the staple price tracker every week in between.
Sources and how we track prices
Inflation figures: Office for National Statistics, Consumer price inflation, UK: September 2026, published 21 October 2026. The food category figures are from the same ONS release, as reported by the Food and Drink Federation and the British Retail Consortium on the day of publication. All percentage changes above are year over year unless a monthly change is stated.
Methodology note: the CPI is a national index of price change, not a list of shelf prices. It tells you the direction and pace of prices across the UK. Our weekly tracker does the opposite job: it records actual shelf prices for specific items at specific stores, so you can see both the national trend and the price you would actually pay.
The national food rate is 1.3%, but your personal rate depends on your basket. Scan your receipts free (5 scans a month, no credit card) and see what your staples actually did this year.