An Iceland boss has issued a warning about a "worrying" new trend for shoplifting and aggression in his supermarkets as food prices rise.
Households will see their yearly food shopping bills hiked by £380 this year due to the soaring price of groceries.
Figures from analysts Kantar show that grocery price inflation jumped to 8.3% over the four weeks to June 12 - the highest level since April 2009.
Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain , Iceland managing director Richard Walker gave an update on what the supermarket was seeing amid the cost of living crisis .
Walker said soaring food costs have sparked a rise in shoplifting and aggressive incidents across Iceland stores.
He added: "I get the serious incident reports every week of aggressive behaviour that goes on in our stores and unfortunately it is going up because people are struggling."
One of the hosts was taken aback by the worrying rise and quizzed Walker on how supermarket staff deal with shoplifters.
He explained: "We're not the police and we do have security guards in some stores, but they will give a written warning or ban the customer from the story if they get aggressive."
Iceland has launched a series of initiatives to help ease the cost-of-living crisis for shoppers.
The supermarket chain reduced the threshold for free delivery and has frozen the price of hundreds of £1 value lines.
Viewers following the show on Twitter praised the supermarket chain for taking action to help shoppers.
Jasmine commented: "I like the boss of Iceland...at least he's trying."
David added: "Very impressed by the boss of Iceland."
Last week The Mirror reported that supermarkets have been forced to put security tags on foods like cheese and Lurpak as shoppers have been driven to shoplift by the cost of living crisis.
These gadgets set off alarms if not removed by supermarket staff before a consumer leaves a store.
They are normally found on high-value meat, alcohol and cosmetics, but are now being fitted to things like butter and cheese as the cost of living escalates.
One Asda store has fitted security devices to 500g tubs of Lurpak.
The cost of Lurpak has been rising and a single tub now costs £7.25 in some supermarkets.
Other supermarkets have been adding anti-theft gizmos to cheese in a bid to deter shoplifters.
The Mirror understands that Asda security tags are applied by individual supermarkets, and stores may add tags to products they may have noticed have been going missing.
Brits have admitted stealing almost £500million of toiletries, fresh produce and baby formula this year alone.
Research from www.myfavouritevouchercodes.co.uk found that 34% of UK adults had stolen something using a self-scanning till at a supermarket in the last year - up from 22% before 2022.
The firm surveyed 2,584 shoppers about thefts from supermarkets.
