The price of some everyday groceries has more than doubled over the past year, a new study from Which? has found. The company's food and drink inflation tracker says the cost of own-brand items has continued to rise.
The consumer champion analysed more than 25,000 food and drink products at eight major supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose – to see how everyday product prices have been hit. It looked at the items with the highest inflation at each supermarket to find out what has seen the biggest price rise.
The analysis covered the average price of products in the three months up to the end of February 2023 compared to the same period 12 months ago. The items where the average price has risen the most were Asda’s Free From Special Flakes (300g) and Waitrose’s Essential Italian Mozzarella Strength 1 (drained 150g) - which went from 62p to £1.43 (129%) and 80p to £1.77 (121%) respectively. Morrison’s Free From Corn Flakes (300g) also rose significantly from 60p to £1.29 (115%).
Sainsbury’s Hubbard's Foodstore Water (2L), Tesco Creamfields French Brie (200G) and Lidl’s Chene D'argent Camembert (250g) have also more than doubled in price over the last year - going from 17p to 35p (106%), 82p to £1.65 (103%) and 99p to £2 (102%) respectively. Which? found a range of everyday items in each supermarket’s list of groceries with the highest inflation - including milk, meat and fruit.
Own-brand products were particularly hard-hit and featured heavily in most supermarkets’ lists. For example, Aldi’s Nature's Pick Honeydew Melon, which went from 95p to £1.70 (79%). The exception to this is Ocado’s list, which only includes branded items. Cadbury’s Milk Tray Chocolate Box 360g saw the highest inflation at Ocado, rising from £4.21 to £7.81 (86%).
This reflects the trackers’ findings that overall, budget (22.9%) and own-brand (19.7%) items were again subject to higher rates of inflation than premium (13.8%) and branded counterparts (13.3%). Although, some branded products - such as Lurpak - have made headlines in recent months for their price increases.
The tracker shows that in February, the annual inflation of popular food and drink was at 16.5% overall across the eight retailers. While the inflation rates have dropped slightly among some high inflation categories - such as butters and spreads, which dropped from 29.9% last month to 26.1% this month - it has risen across other essential categories.
For example, inflation on vegetables rose from 11.6% to 13%, juice drinks and smoothies went from 13.4 per cent to 15.1 per cent and cereals increased from 13.4 per cent to 14.6 per cent. When Which? looked at inflation by supermarket it found that while the discounters remain generally cheaper than bigger rivals, it seems they have less room for flexibility when it comes to passing costs on to customers.
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The tracker shows prices were up 24.4% at Lidl, compared to 22.7% at Aldi, 17% at Asda, 16.7 at Morrisons, 14.2 at Waitrose, 14.1% at Sainsbury’s, 14% at Tesco and 10.3% at Ocado.
Which? is campaigning for all supermarkets to ensure that budget line items that enable an affordable and healthy diet are widely available, particularly in areas where people are most in need. They must also make pricing and offers more transparent so that people can easily work out which products are the best value.
Sue Davies, Which? head of food policy, said “Worryingly our tracker shows that some everyday essentials have more than doubled in price over the last year - with cheaper own-brand items particularly hard hit. Supermarkets need to step up and ensure everyone has easy access to basic, affordable food ranges at a store near them, particularly in areas where people are most in need.
“Retailers must also provide transparent pricing so people can easily work out which products offer the best value.”
An Aldi spokesman said: “We have repeatedly raised concerns with Which? over the accuracy of this survey. We are working hard to shield customers from industry-wide inflation, and our promise to our customers is that we will always provide the lowest grocery prices in Britain. Which? named us as the cheapest supermarket in 2022 and it has again confirmed that we were the lowest-priced supermarket in January and February 2023.”
