The price of basic groceries such as butter, milk and cheese went up 30% year-on-year at some supermarkets in December, new figures show. While overall food and drink inflation reached 15% in December across the eight major supermarkets, butters and spreads rose by an “astonishing” 29.4%, according to tracking by watchdog Which?
Milk was 26.3% more expensive than a year before, while cheese (22.3%), bakery items (19.5%), water (18.6%) and savoury pies, pastries and quiches (18.5%) also saw higher-than-average price increases. Among the worst examples of inflation over the three months to the end of December included Utterly Butterly 500g, up from £1 to £1.95 across several supermarkets, Waitrose Duchy Organic Homogenised Semi-Skimmed Milk (1 pint/568ml) rising 87.1% from 65p to £1.22, and Creamfields French Brie 200g at Tesco up 81.6% from 79p to £1.43.
Across supermarket ranges, inflation was significantly higher on budget ranges (20.3%) and own-brand items (18.5%) than premium (12.6%) and branded (12.5%) alternatives, just as consumers turned to the cheaper options to cut food bills. Which?’s supermarket food and drink inflation tracker records the annual inflation of tens of thousands of food and drink products across three months at eight major supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.
