LONDON, 22 Feb. - (ANA) - Muslim adults in the UK are twice as likely to experience food insecurity as the wider population, according to new national research commissioned by Muslim Aid ahead of Ramadan.

 

The survey of more than 1,000 Muslim adults reveals clear inequality in how hardship is experienced across Britain.

 

59 percent of Muslim respondents said they had worried about running out of food in the past year, compared with 29 percent nationally.

 

44 percent said they had experienced days where they went hungry because they could not afford food, more than double the national figure of 19 percent.

 

The findings come as national data from The Food Foundation shows food insecurity remains persistently high, with millions of households affected even as headline inflation has fallen.

 

Food insecurity is not always visible. It can mean skipping meals, cutting portion sizes, choosing cheaper and less nutritious food, or deciding between heating and eating. A Muslim diabetic survey respondent from London told us: “I have to feed my daughter bread at home and for her school lunch. I cannot afford to buy healthy food. Most [meal] times I eat my daughter’s leftovers.”

 

Another Muslim interviewee, a student from the West Midlands, said: “I have siblings who live with me and hearing them complain about wanting what the other children can eat hurts me as they don’t deserve to live like this. I study in college and I feel a lack of engagement due to hunger and lack of nutrition.”

 

For many Muslim and minority households, food insecurity can also mean going without culturally appropriate food. One man told Muslim Aid he was living off one tinned item a day from food banks as he couldn’t afford halal food, while another said they had become vegetarian for the same reason.

 

 

 

 

Through interfaith partnerships, Muslim Aid has delivered more than 167,000 culturally appropriate meals and now supports 109,000 people of all backgrounds every week from its West London depot.

 

To coincide with the research, Muslim Aid is supporting a Ramadan Community Cooking and Wellbeing Project in Tower Hamlets on Monday 23 February, in partnership with Well One and The Felix Project. The initiative will bring together local women, particularly from a Bengali background, to prepare and distribute 500 nutritious, culturally appropriate meals across the borough, alongside education promoting healthier cooking during Ramadan.   - (ANA) -

 

 

AB/ANA/22 February 2026 - - -