OTTAWA - Low income and unemployed Canadians say they are feeling the pinch from rising food prices, a new poll has found.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey suggests 46 per cent of Canadians believe that rising food prices has had either a major (14 per cent) or minor (32 per cent) impact in the way they shop for groceries.

The changed behaviour is much more prevalent among the unemployed and those making less than $40,000 a year. Among this group, 52 per cent said their grocery shopping habits are undergoing a "major" change.

A large majority - 66 per cent - of those surveyed with annual incomes around $100,000 said they had not changed their grocery shopping habits in response to cost increases.

"For people on low incomes, groceries are a big part of their spending ... (so) definitely people at the lower end of the income scale are seeing a challenge to their standard of living," said pollster Bruce Anderson of Harris/Decima.

Statistics Canada has reported very little change in overall food prices in Canada in the past year, but some foods that Canadians consider staples, such as bread, pasta, rice and baked goods, have risen sharply. Baked goods were nine per cent higher in March than a year ago.

Anderson said some Canadians may be responding to news reports of food shortages and riots in some developing countries.

"If it's true that Canada has been somewhat sheltered (from high food prices) but going forward we're more vulnerable to price increases, these numbers may represent a starting point of consumer reaction," he said.

Anderson said changed buying habits could include anything from changing diets to take advantage of cheaper goods, shopping more frequently in big-box stores that sell food in bulk, and in buying less.

Forty-one per cent of those who responded to the poll said they have made minor or major changes in the amount of food they buy, with Atlantic Canadians, women, the unemployed and those with incomes under $40,000 most likely to say they are buying less.

The telephone survey of 1,000 found that the vast majority, 78 per cent, believed the problem of high food prices was not a short-term phenomenon, with many attributing the problem to rising cost of energy and the conversion of farmland from food to biofuel production.

The poll was conducted between May 1 and May 4 and is considered accurate plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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