The manufacturers of frozen food will no doubt be delighted, but Jamie Oliver must be aghast.
Chicken nuggets - processed poultry chunks, often made from the least palatable parts of the bird, have been selling so well that the have been dropped into the shopping basket used by the Office of National Statistics to measure inflation.
Half litre bottles of fizzy drinks and pre-packed vegetables are also added to the shopping basket, which contains some 650 items, while drinks that aid dieting were removed.
If there is any consolation for Mr Oliver and the country's nutritionists, it must lie in the fact the processed white meat has made it into the shopping basket at the expense of processed red meat. Corned beef, long a staple of soldiers and schoolchildren alike, is no longer indicative of national spending habits. Neither are baguettes or powdered baby milk.
Other indicators of the lifestyles led by 21st century Britons are the inclusion of vending machine cigarette sales and DVDs sold on the internet - watched by couch potatoes from leather, rather than upholstered, sofas. Meanwhile, the email phenomenon has consigned writing paper to shopping basket history, while disposable razors are no longer deemed cutting edge.
The ONS found that spending on services accounted for around half of total expenditure by UK consumers, with cash machine charges and fees charged by solicitors and carpenters now reaching such a level as to warrant inclusion. Once all the bills have been paid, what little money is left would appear to go on tickets for music concerts, which have also found their way into the basket.
