§ Mr. Donald Stewartasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection if he will list in the Official Report the commodities in the food index, giving the current prices and the prices at February 1974.
§ Mr. MaclennanRetail prices of about 80 important food items calculated from information gathered by the Department of Employment for the General Index of Retail Prices are published monthly in theDepartment of Employment Gazette. The prices for 19th February 1974 and 12th October 1976 can be found in Issue No. 4 of Volume LXXXII and No. 11 of LXXXIV.
For the following categories of food in the Food Index an average price is not published. This is because the diversity of items within each of the categories makes the notion of an average meaningless. These are: breakfast cereals, etc.; biscuits; cakes; milk, canned, dried, etc.; proprietary drinks; soft drinks; jams; vegetables, canned, dried and frozen; fruit, canned and dried; sweets and chocolates; ice-cream; sauces, pickles, etc.; pet foods.