People around the globe are changing what they eat because of the rising cost of food, according to a new global survey released today by international aid agency Oxfam.

Some 62 per cent of Australians surveyed are no longer eating the same foods they did two years ago, and 39 per cent of them attributed this to rising food prices.

The survey was conducted by international research consultancy GlobeScan and involved 16 000 people in 17 countries including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, UK and the USA.

Globally, 54 per cent of overall respondents surveyed said they are not eating the same food as they did two years ago – the period before the current food price crisis began – and 39 per cent of those who said their diet had changed blamed the rising price of food.

Oxfam Australia Executive Director Andrew Hewett said he hoped the findings would start a debate about how we grow and share food so everyone has enough to eat in a world where one in seven people are going hungry.

“Food is one of life’s greatest pleasures and one of our most fundamental human rights but our diets are changing fast and for too many people it is a change for the worst,” Mr Hewett said.

“Large numbers of people in Australia and especially in the world’s poorest countries are cutting back on the quantity or quality of the food they eat because of rising food prices.”