SPIRALLING food prices around the region are pushing governments into resorting to an old but potentially hazardous solution: price controls.

From Malaysia and Indonesia to China and Thailand, governments are turning to capping more prices and stabilising them artificially in a bid to protect citizens from rising costs of food staples.

The quick fix comes with potential risks: Analysts warn that fighting market forces could only trigger shortages and black market activities - the very things the controls were meant to counter.

For many governments, unfortunately, alternative options are limited.

Millions of people in countries like Indonesia and China are living below the poverty line, and the soaring prices of flour, butter, sugar, oil, bread and noodles put their very survival at risk.

Apart from the social costs, governments also cannot afford to ignore the political fallout, as recent food riots and angry anti-inflation protests in Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan show.

A combination of factors including poor weather, changing diets and rising demand for biofuels made from crops have cut the supply of staples such as rice and wheat, pushing up prices worldwide.

Last year saw food prices rise by a record 40 per cent, and more price hikes are expected this year.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warning that rising cereal prices worldwide may threaten 300 million rural poor in South Asia.

The threat of starvation and political instability has prompted governments to clamp down hard on the price hikes.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.