Efforts need to be made by home cooks to use as many fresh ingredients as possible in Christmas recipes, Bradford's Ministry of Food has said.

It emphasised that people need to be inspired to cook recipes from scratch, as this will help reduce costs over the festive period, the BBC reports.

"I think this year will be really difficult for everybody but the thing to bear in mind is just to have some really great recipes up your sleeve and you can really save money that way," said Lisa McLoughlin, food officer at the Ministry.

She highlighted that store cupboard ingredients such as spices and herbs need to be purchased, as this will make it much simpler to put together tasty Christmas dishes.

Parents were recently advised by Rachel Cooke, senior public health dietician with the British Dietetic Association, not to force vegetables on children that they do not like.