Canadians are filling their shopping carts with more fresh fruits, cartons of low fat milk and red meats and skimping on oranges and breads, a new Statistics Canada report on food availability across the country says.

The report, released Wednesday, suggests shoppers have been sensitive to environmental and industrial changes that have driven up the cost of groceries.

Price of bread
April 2006 - $1.88
April 2007 - $2.06
April 2008 - $2.43
Source: Statistics Canada

For example, price hikes for products including pasta has increased 6.4 per cent from 2006 and 2007 in part owing to drought, low wheat inventories and the burgeoning bio-fuels industry. Similarly, the price of bread jumped 7.1 per cent over the same time period.

"Higher prices and lower availability reduced the demand for wheat flour products in 2007 as Canadians used 45.4 kilograms of wheat flour per person in 2007 compared to 46.1 kilograms the year before," the report said.

Cereal availability dropped to 56.9 kilograms per person in 2007 while rice increased to 5.2 kilograms per person. Fewer oranges were available to shoppers, owing to a deep winter freeze that notably damaged Florida crops. Consumption accordingly dropped 9.4 per cent, from 4.9 kilograms per person in 2006 to 4.4 kilograms in 2007. Statistics Canada noted, however, that a greater abundance of grapefruit, mandarins, clementines and tangerines helped offset the decline.

Meanwhile, the availability of fresh fruits reached a record high in 2007, meaning an average of 38.2 kilograms were purchased per person, the federal agency said. Consumers are also incorporating more vegetables into their diet compared with 20 years ago, eating four times more garlic and more than twice the amount of asparagus and cucumbers.

Skim and 1% milk are eclipsing 2% milk in popularity, according to the report. More stores are stocking yogurt, the report said, while ice cream fell in popularity with consumers, the report said.

Canadians consumed an average of 24.5 kilograms of red meat in 2007, an increase of 0.7 kilograms from 2006 while pork imports also climbed 18.8 per cent over the same time period.