UK shoppers buy more fruit and yoghurt in healthy start to 2026
Britons started 2026 by buying more healthy food such as fruit and yoghurt as they attempted to hit new year health goals, while grocery price inflation eased to the lowest level since April, research has shown.Annual grocery inflation fell back to 4% in the four weeks to 25 January from 4.7% in December, offering some relief for shoppers, according to a monthly snapshot of the grocery sector from the research company Worldpanel by Numerator.Consumers turned to healthy eating, it said, with sales volumes of fresh fruit and dried pulses up 6% year on year, while fresh fish was up 5%, poultry 3% and chilled yoghurt 4%.Cottage cheese sales jumped by 50% and it was bought by 2.
8 million households, 600,000 more than last year.Nearly a quarter of shoppers sought out high-protein foods and more than a quarter looked for high-fibre products.Fraser McKevitt, the Worldpanel head of retail and consumer insight, said: “Shoppers are actively seeking out foods that support their health goals, with strong demand for staples high in nutrients like protein and fibre.“While interest in seasonal diet-focused trends like Veganuary on the decline, shoppers are taking a more practical, balanced and achievable approach to healthy eating, built around foods already familiar to most households.”Waitrose reported on Monday that Dry January was not so dry after all.
“Move over Blue Monday, it’s all about ‘Damp Monday’,” said the upmarket grocer,This year, the January slump in alcohol sales ended early on 12 January, when shoppers started adding more wines, beers and spirits back into their baskets, with sales up 11% compared with the week before,As many shoppers cut back after record spending on groceries in December, in January they usually spend more on supermarkets’ own-label items, which tend to be cheaper than branded goods,This year, own-label accounted for 52,2% of grocery spending – the highest level recorded to date.
“For most shoppers, January is all about resetting household budgets, and this year was no exception” McKevitt said,“Value remained front of mind for many – with own-label hitting a record high, accounting for more than half of all grocery spend,”Spending on promotions also picked up pace,While not hitting the Christmas highs, it rose by 10,9% year on year, marking the fastest rate of growth since October 2024.
By contrast, full-price sales edged up by just 1.7% compared with the equivalent four weeks last year.The search for wellness was felt in the drinks aisle.Functional drinks, marketed around energy, gut health or mood enhancement, were bought by 11% of households, and spending was up by 13% year on year.McKevitt said it was notable how many people were willing to splash out on wellness, with functional drinks costing nearly four times as much as typical soft drinks at £4.
69 a litre.Take-home sales at the grocers grew by 3.8% in the four weeks, the same rate as in December.The German discounter Lidl was the fastest-growing physical chain again, with sales up 10.1% over the 12 weeks to 25 January, increasing its market share to 7.
7%.The online retailer Ocado fared well, with sales up 14.1%, raising its market share to 2.1%.Sainsbury’s and Tesco also notched up higher sales and market share gains, while Waitrose and Aldi held their market share.
The data showed Asda and the Co-op were the only supermarkets to record a drop in sales, of 3,7% and 1,6% respectively,
Software stock sell-off goes global amid fears over AI-led disruption – business live
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.A selloff in software and data company stocks that began in Europe yesterday has spread to Asia-Pacific markets, via the US, today.Software stocks slid from India to Japan, following losses on Wall Street overnight, on growing concerns that their business models will be devoured by AI.The trigger for the selloff appears to be an updated chatbot release from AI developer Anthropic, the company behind the chatbot Claude, designed to automate legal work such as contract reviewing, non-disclosure agreement triage, compliance workflows, legal briefings and templated responses.The news had an immediate impact in London yesterday, where information and analytics company Relx plunged 14%, UK publishing group Pearson fell by nearly 8%, and the London Stock Exchange Group fell by 13%
Zero net migration would shrink UK economy by 3.6%, says thinktank
The UK economy would be 3.6% smaller by 2040 if net migration fell to zero, forcing the government to raise taxes to combat a much bigger budget deficit, a thinktank has predicted.The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said falling birthrates in the UK and a sharp decrease in net migration last year had led it to consider what would happen if this trend continued to the end of the decade.In this scenario the UK population would stop growing at about 70 million in 2030. The latest official figures showed the UK population was 69
Fairphone 6 review: cheaper, repairable and longer-lasting Android
The Dutch ethical smartphone brand Fairphone is back with its six-generation Android, aiming to make its repairable phone more modern, modular, affordable and desirable, with screw-in accessories and a user-replaceable battery.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The Fairphone 6 costs £499 (€599), making it cheaper than previous models and pitting it squarely against budget champs such as the Google Pixel 9a and the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, while being repairable at home with long-term software support and a five-year warranty
French headquarters of Elon Musk’s X raided by Paris cybercrime unit
Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime.“A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, the national police cyber unit and Europol,” the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network.It said in a statement that Musk and Linda Yaccarino had been summoned for “voluntary questioning” in April in their capacity as “de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events”. Yaccarino resigned as chief executive of X in July last year.The French prosecutors’ announcement comes amid a hardening of European attitudes to social media firms
LIV Golf tour hits out at decision to only award ranking points to top-10 finishers
The Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Tour has hit out at what it regards as victimisation from those presiding over the sport’s world rankings process, despite seeing their wait of nearly four years for recognition by the system finally end.It was confirmed on Tuesday that those competing in LIV tournaments will receive official world golf ranking points but only when finishing in the top 10. A statement from the OWGR board said this “recognises there are a number of areas where LIV Golf does not meet the eligibility standards set out”.Since LIV competition started in 2022, the OWGR has not given any reward to those performing in that domain. This has led to previously prominent golfers tumbling down the rankings; Cameron Smith is now 221st, Sergio García 363rd and Dustin Johnson 662nd
IOC president gives clearest signal so far that Russia could be at 2028 Olympics
The International Olympic Committee president, Kirsty Coventry, has given her clearest signal yet that Russia could be back for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.A day after the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, said he wanted Russia reinstated to international football, Coventry used her opening address to the 145th IOC congress in Milan to argue that all athletes should be allowed to compete in sport – regardless of their government’s behaviour.Her comments are likely to cause tension with Ukraine after the sports minister, Matvii Bidnyi, branded Infantino as “irresponsible” and “infantile” for attempting to draw a line between sport and politics before the IOC president ventured into the same territory.While not referencing Russia directly, Coventry said: “Throughout the campaign and in many of our conversations since, I have heard the same message from many of you. Focus on our core
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