Shoppers could be confused into spending more than necessary in the supermarkets thanks to lack of clarity around pricing.
Analysis by The Times of hundreds of price tags at major supermarkets found the lack of clarity is making it harder for shoppers to find the best deals and that while shoppers might assume it would be cheaper to buy fresh produce loose, this is not always correct because of variations between products and stores.
The Times found cases where buying in bulk is a false economy, with smaller pack sizes costing less per unit than bigger or family packs.
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In order to do my own research I went to three different major supermarkets - Morrisons, Tesco and Asda to check out their fruit aisles and see if buying loose fruit really was adding up to a higher price tag than buying packaged.
In Morrisons in Whitefield a box of loose oranges was embazoned with Price Hold and individually were priced at 29p. In the adjoining box a bumper pack of five is £1.25 so therefore cheaper than buying five loose ones, which would come to £1.45. The pack oranges also look bigger and juicier.
Lemons were priced at 29p each but a bag of four wonky ones were only 59p - making it much cheaper so long as you are not a stickler for symmetry - otherwise four loose lemons would be a much costlier £1.16 - bound to leave a sour taste in your mouth. Similarly, a six pack of Royal Gala apples was £1.79 - but the same apples were priced at 39p each - meaning buying six loose would cost a much more pricely £2.34, a whole 55p more - all a bit rotten.
Elsewhere pack apples range in price according to product - six Granny Smiths in a pack are priced at £1.79, whereas only four pink lady apples are 20p more expensive at £1.99. Conference pears are 39p each with a pack of four priced at £1.59 - 3p cheaper than buying four loose ones. Mangos are £1.69 for a pack of two - but 89p each, making it nine pence more expensive to buy two loose ones - confirming that it does not always work out cheaper to go for the loose fruit.
In Tesco in Prestwich there was a similarly flabbergasting situation where lemons are priced individually at 30p but a pack of five lemons is £1.35 - making it a total of £1.50 if bought loose. The label itself stated a pack of four at 33.8p each - but in every bag there were five lemons, not four. Loose limes were 17p and a pack of five were 85p - meaning they were the same price per lime in a pack.
In Asda in Radcliffe loose apples were priced at £2 per kilo and a pack of the same apples were £1.50 for six. I had no idea how many apples would make up a kilo so this involved having to weigh the fruit on scales.
Similarly a kilo of pears was priced at £2 and a four pack of conference pears was £1.60, but without putting the loose pears on a weighing scale I could not work out the best buy. Asda lemons were priced at 30p each but a four pack was 90p taking the fruit down to 22.5p if you bought in bulk. Limes were 18p individually but worked out at 17.5p each if bought in a pack of four at 70p. Asda tangerines ranged in price from 75p for 600g to £1.29 for the same amount.
My findings showed it is certainly not always cheaper to buy loose fruit and I found a lot of the labelling confusing, with loose fruit being priced by weight and large disparities between produce prices. But a spokesperson for Tesco says there is a reason for this.
He said: " Loose fruit and packaged fruit are not directly comparable, with loose varieties generally of a different (higher) specification."
A spokesperson for Asda said: “The price difference between these loose lemons and limes and their packaged counterparts reflects that they are larger individually and better quality.
"As well as being clearly labelled, customers can use the weighing scales available to them in our stores should they wish to compare the weights of fresh produce they are buying.”
Morrisons were approached for comment and said they are looking in to the matter.
