The bell is tolling for the humble saveloy and the fat lady is singing (sad songs).  The red sausage adored by many true Kiwis, along with condensed milk and fresh peaches (although we do tend to go for canned), has been struck out of the basket of food items measured in the food price index.  Taking their place in the basket are the new foods - soy milk, free-range eggs, hummus dip, fresh pineapple and chilled fruit juice.

The Food Price Index (FPI) has subsequently been updated and reweighted.  Of every $100 spent on food, around $21 is spent on eating out or takeaways; $17 is on proteins (meat, poultry and fish); $14 is on fruit and veges; $10 is on non-alcoholic drinks; and $38 is on grocery food.

Oh, and by the way, food prices are up 0.6 percent in the July 2008 month, and 7.6 percent in the year to July 2008.  The greatest increase on the month has been fruit and vegetables (up 3.6 percent) driven by lettuce (up 32.4 percent) and cucumbers (up 27.9 percent).  All subgroup prices were up apart from the meat, poultry and fish subgroup (down 1.0 percent).  Fresh chickens were down 7.1 percent in July, while tomatoes and nectarines were down 14.6 percent and 32.3 percent respectively.

On the year, the greatest increase is still from the grocery food subgroup (up 11.2 percent), led by bread (up 19.6 percent), cheddar cheese (up 59.3 percent), butter (up 89.4 percent) and fresh milk (up 10.2 percent).  All five food subgroups are up on the year.  Other increases were restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (up 6.0 percent); fruit and vegetables (up 5.4 percent); meat, poultry and fish (up 4.3 percent); and non-alcoholic beverages (up 6.6 percent).

Heres hoping the Purplo takes off sometime soon and returns the saveloy to its rightful place in the New Zealand food basket!

More information on the latest food prices is available on the Statistics New Zealand website here.