Asda is doubling the number of stores stocking its budget food range, amid high-profile criticism it has not been doing enough to help its customers cope with the cost of living crisis.
The UK's third biggest supermarket chain said it was reacting to rising concerns over inflation and energy prices, following a campaign by poverty activist Jack Monroe.
Food writer Jack, who is well-known for campaigning on hunger, said that low-income shoppers were facing price increases on basic items because they could no longer get hold of value ranges of products.
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She pointed out that some shoppers were facing triple-digit inflation because they were no longer able to buy products from these ranges and had to buy more expensive basics.
In one example she gave of an unnamed retailer, the cheapest 1kg bags of rice had been removed from the shelves, and the next alternative was a 500g pack costing £1, which worked out at a 344% increase.
She added that in her local Asda, the cheapest bag of pasta was no longer a 29p bag from the Smart Price range but an own-brand version costing 70p – a 141% price rise.
And Asda said it had taken onboard Monroe’s comments and would stock its full 200 Smart Price and Farm Stores lines in all 581 food stores and online from the end of this month, increasing the number of customers who have access to the products.
Currently, 150 items are available in 300 stores across the country, including tinned foods and everyday products such as cleaning goods.
Some of the deals, which include 1kg bags of rice for 45p and tins of chopped tomatoes for 28p, had been taken off the website and removed from some stores as the supermarket streamlined its offer.
Meg Farren, Asda's chief customer officer, said: "We want to help our customers' budgets stretch further and have taken on board the comments about the availability of our Smart Price range made by Jack Monroe.
"We are taking steps to put our full Smart Price and Farm Stores ranges in store and online to make these products as accessible as possible."
The price promise comes after Britain's biggest supermarket, Tesco, warned "the worst is yet to come" on rising food prices.
Tesco's John Allan warned grocers and suppliers were not immune from rising energy costs.
He estimated supermarket prices could rise as much as 5% by the spring as energy and other costs feed through to the High Street, adding that Tesco's food price inflation in the last three months had been contained to about 1%.
"We are impacted by rising energy prices, our suppliers are impacted by rising energy prices. So the likelihood is that that inflation figure will rise," he said.
