It’s that time of the week when the big food shop needs doing and the cupboards are bare. But as you walk through your local supermarket, you realise beef won’t be an option for this week’s Sunday roast – again – as the shelves look almost empty.

Onto the fruit and veg aisle and there’s no avocados in sight while your hopes of supporting British farmers by buying local carrots and parsnips are immediately scuppered.

Even coffee and chocolate seem in short supply and worst of all, this isn’t a one-off situation unique to your local store or the day you’ve chosen to do your shopping – it’s a window into the supermarket shops of the non-too-distant future, one food experts predict will look remarkably different within a few short years because of climate change and rising costs.

Worryingly, some of these changes are already apparent. Take one of our sweetest treats, chocolate. Right now there is a global shortage of cocoa after west African countries, responsible for 70% of cacao production, suffered poor harvests due to heat, heavy rainfall and disease. The crisis is expected to get worse as our planet continues to warm.

And it’s affecting consumers doing their weekly shopping with the average price of Easter chocolate surging more than 10% over the last five years, according to analysis released this week. A small Lindt Gold Bunny Milk Chocolate weighing 100g, as one example, has soared from £2.99 to £4.25. Based on current trends, consumers could be paying £6.04 for it by the end of the decade.

Elsewhere, shoppers have been warned to expect shortfalls of broccoli, cauliflower and other brassica vegetables in the coming weeks because of an unusually mild autumn and winter. This will coincide with the traditional “hungry gap” between April and June, when winter crops have ended but summer crops aren’t ready for harvesting.

Hannah Croft, Agronomist at Riverford, the organic vegetable delivery box, has warned customers of “tight periods for broccoli supply later this spring”.

Of course, the vulnerability of our shopping baskets was in full evidence in the spring of 2023 when colder-than-usual weather in the Mediterranean resulted in a shortage of salad. Cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce were all affected.

And Dr Morgaine Gaye, a food futurologist and author of Fashion to Food, warns that coffee is already on the “endangered” list. Gaye, who works with the Ministry of Defence and global defence forces to prepare for future food scenarios, told the Express that rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are already threatening coffee-growing regions known as the “bean belt”.

“The region is dominated by Brazil and [other parts of] South America and African nations, areas which [are vulnerable to] corruption and unstable governments,” she says. “Many farmers are already moving to higher elevations or switching crops which means coffee will no longer be grown in some areas.”

Other alternatives are in the works from chicory root coffee and lab-grown coffee compounds to coffee made from roasted dates. But for those who like the strong stuff it is certainly bad news.

Meanwhile, British fisherman and oyster farmer Tony Talbot has sounded the alarm on the UK’s dwindling fish population.

“Both in value and quantity, I’ve had to source fish elsewhere and buy cod in London fish markets,” says the 58-year-old who made his first net aged 14. “It’s very, very different this year.”

Involved in the sea for his whole life – both of his parents are ex Royal Navy personnel – Tony runs his own fishing business Tony’s Fresh Fish, based at Clear Point Bay, Clacton. Since 2001, he has hauled his catches from Thames Estuary but now believes his livelihood is under threat with once abundant species flowing through the waters in huge decline.

He typically fishes Dover sole, sea bass, lobsters, grey mullet, thornback rays, turbot and brill but believes the increasing wetter weather is driving higher concentration of nitrogen into rivers fuelling higher quantities of algae, with disastrous consequences.

“The whole Thames Estuary is full of what’s called May water,” Tony goes on to explain the effect of the algae on fishing: “It sticks to the meshes of the nets meaning the fish can see the algae and then don’t go in the nets. It’s the same for lobsters and lobster pots.”

Traditionally the algae normally stays in the water for around four weeks, but Tony says this year it has lingered for double the amount of time after Britain recently experienced its wettest winter in 130 years.

He has 33 lobster pots but expects to only catch nine or ten lobsters per day and the spring season is short as arriving jellyfish, seawood and clearer waters limit catches.

“We have to make hay in the spring – and this year spring has been wiped out,” he says glumly.

Back on land, the long-term picture is mixed. Reflecting on the current chocolate shortage, Dr Gaye says this is an ongoing problem as “cacao trees are sensitive to climate changes and diseases”.

But she believes the replacements scientists are producing may one day be just as good.

“We’re seeing a huge development of lab-grown cacao butter and precision fermentation to produce chocolate,” adds Dr Gaye. “Alternative chocolate products using carob or other beans are also under development with promising results.

“Even so, cacao beans – or chocolate as we know it – is a commodity which will increase in value and scarcity as the years pass.”

As our climate changes, avocados and almonds are also both facing an increasingly perilous position.

Jennie Norton, a nutritionist at Vegan Wins, explains: “Both require a lot of water to grow, and with droughts becoming more common, their production may not stay sustainable on a large scale.”

Meanwhile nutritionist Emilie Clement says a monoculture farming system, where a single crop is grown in a given area, could also “wipe out” entire varieties of crops.

“If only a handful of banana or wheat varieties exist, a single blight could wipe out entire crops. Large agricultural companies prioritise profit over sustainability, leading to soil depletion, water pollution and the exploitation of farm workers. We need systemic change, not just individual dietary shifts.”

Carrots and parsnips are under threat too as they fail to grow if soil is waterlogged.

“Unless we develop more growing systems like polytunnels and greenhouses, supermarkets may buy more from Europe and take their support away from local farmers,” says Dr Gaye.

The expert anticipates the unpredictability of weather patterns in the form of flooding, droughts and unseasonal frost will mean staple crops like wheat, potatoes and brassicas will become more expensive as time passes.

Dr Rimas Geiga, a dietician and clinical nutritionist, goes as far as to say the good old-fashioned Sunday roast is likely to look very different in a few years time, with beef increasingly off the menu.

“Beef’s environmental toll, high greenhouse gas emissions, excessive water use and deforestation make it unsustainable,” he says. “As regulatory pressures grow and consumer habits shift it will be substituted by lab-grown meat and plant-based substitutes will dominate.”

But with warmer climes expected in the UK in the decades ahead, there is a chance we may start farming crops such as grapes, apricots and, even peaches, in the most southern part of the country where temperatures are traditionally warmest.

Soy chickpeas and quinoa too could also become homegrown staples alongside algae and seaweed.

“These are nutrient-dense, fast-growing and resource-efficient. Algae, for example, can provide protein, omega-3s and sustainable calories,” says Dr Geiga.

Lab-grown meat and insects – despite their initial yuk factor – are two alternative protein sources that may well increase in popularity.

“Insects as protein are already a main source in two thirds of the world and will become more accepted in the West as a variety of insects are ground for protein-dense flour,” says Dr Gaye. “Already advances have been made in growing flesh in a lab, and experts expect cell-cultured meat and fish to become more mainstream due to scarcity driving up costs.”

Other meat alternatives could also be on the rise. Easier to grow than soya as a form of plant protein, konjac root, banana flower, jack fruit and fava bean-based fish alternatives are already being used as vegan options.

Ancient grains like sorghum and millet will be more widely used for flour-based products and breads and could replace water-intensive staples like rice and wheat in many parts of the world.

Farming and growing will be more commonplace in cities, it is predicted, and individuals will be more inclined to have a few basic foods growing inside their homes – this will include in-home countertop systems and hydroponics.

Back to Tony and the fisherman says that just a few short years ago he was pulling in 40 stone of herring an hour; today it’s a species that is hard to come by, its shortfall impacting levels of predators including cod and skate.

The fishing industry has also been decimated by government bans on fishing certain species, including drift netting and sea bass fishing.

“You also lose vital and historic skills in the area,” Tony sighs. “The people who used to skin and process skate, they’ve now gone. You can’t get pickers to pick crabs and lobsters out. There aren’t the people who will dress them and get the meat out any more.”

Tony fears the trade is all but disappearing in Britain. He can no longer earn a living entirely from fishing and has turned to teaching children’s swimming lessons and collecting scrap metal to get by.

As the hunger gap grows ever wider, ultimately we may all have to rethink what we eat and drink.