The branded staple foods costing up to 910% more than their budget counterparts
Rice, spaghetti, baked beans and tea bags are among the staple items costing three times as much if the budget versions are not available in supermarkets, new research has found.
Which? analysed the prices of almost 26,000 food and drink products for its inflation tracker at eight major supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Waitrose.
And in a separate piece of research, the consumer champion looked at the difference in price of some everyday food staples between the budget range, standard own-brand, and comparable branded versions.
In the worst example, Which? found shoppers could be faced with having to pay 246% more at Asda where the budget range version, Just Essentials by Asda Long Grain Rice 1kg at 52p was not available, as the standard own-brand, Asda Easy Cook Long Grain White Rice 1kg was £1.80.
If no own-brand options were available, a popular comparable branded alternative, Ben’s Original Long Grain Rice 1kg, was £4.85 – an increase of 833% on the budget range version.
It was a similar story at Tesco where the budget version, Grower’s Harvest Long Grain Rice 1Kg (52p) was not available. The standard own-brand item – Tesco Easy Cook Long Grain Rice 1Kg was £1.25.
That means customers would have to pay 140% more. At Tesco, Which? found Ben’s Original Long Grain Rice 1Kg (£5.25) was 910% more than the budget range version.
At Morrisons, budget Savers Baked Beans 410g were 27p, but standard own-brand Morrisons Baked Beans 410g were 48p – 78% more. There, the Heinz Baked Beans 415g were £1.39, a gram-for-gram increase of 396%.
Similarly at Sainsbury’s, Which? found the budget range, Hubbard’s Foodstore Baked Beans 400g were 27p while standard own-brand Sainsbury’s Baked Beans 400g were 43p – a 59% increase. The branded version, Heinz Baked Beans 415g was £1.40 and while the tin was slightly bigger, it still worked out gram for gram as 400% more than the budget version.
Which?’s inflation tracker found annual grocery inflation slowed to 12.5% in August – its lowest since September 2022, and considerably below the highs of 17.2% found earlier this year.
Some supermarkets have taken steps to help customers. Morrisons has started to stock 10 budget range items in 500 of its Daily stores and has said 30 more will follow. Tesco has vowed to swap branded goods with cheaper branded or own brand alternatives in Express stores.
Sue Davies, Which? Head of Food Policy, said: “As millions struggle with increased food prices and other high household bills, it’s staggering that shoppers face paying over three times more for items if they can’t get to a larger supermarket.”
She called on all major supermarkets to ensure expensive convenience stores are stocked with a range of essential budget ranges.
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What the supermarkets said
Which? alerted all eight supermarkets to its research – just two replied.
Morrisons called it an “unprecedented period of inflation” and said it was working hard to keep prices down and competitive for its customers.
A spokesperson for Morrisons said: “This year we have announced a number of price cuts which have seen the prices of thousands of products lowered. Over the summer, we also ran our Summer Collector scheme, which enabled customers to receive a significant money-off voucher at the end of August if they have met the criteria and shopped in four of the relevant weeks.”
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s said it was “leading the industry on passing through lower costs on the products our customers buy most often and as a result, prices on our top 100 selling products are lower than they were in March”.
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A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s added: “Our rate of inflation has been consistently behind the wider market for some time now – passing on less inflation than our major competitors, month after month for the past year and a half.
“In the last two years we have invested over £560m to keep our prices low and we are focused on saving customers money through key initiatives like our Stamford Street own-brand value range, our biggest ever Aldi Price Match and through Nectar Prices.”
A major police search is taking place for a runner who has been missing for three days – as officers say they are becoming “increasingly concerned”.
Jenny Hall, 23, was last seen leaving her home in Barracks Farm, Tow Law, County Durham, in her car just after 3pm on Tuesday.
In an update on Friday, Durham Constabulary said her last known location was on the B6278 between Stanhope and Eggleston – where her red Ford Focus was parked.
Pic: Durham Constabulary
Sniffer dogs are being used in the area, with the search concentrated on running trails between Eggleston and Hamsterley used regularly by Ms Hall.
Several expert mountain rescue search teams and air support have joined the operation.
More than 100 miles of track have been searched in the Teesdale area by officers, the rural community and local landowners.
Digital intelligence officers have also carried out extensive enquiries into Ms Hall’s mobile phone, smart watch and running apps, but the force said “none have yielded any results unfortunately”.
Police focused on areas ‘Jenny likes to run through’
Chief Inspector Dean Haythornthwaite said in a statement: “We have become increasingly concerned for Jenny since she was reported missing on Tuesday and have been exploring all lines of enquiry, including dozens from members of the public.
“We are focusing our search on areas we know Jenny likes to run through and we are determined to do everything we can to find her.
“I would like to thank everyone who is working around-the-clock in our search and efforts to reunite Jenny with her family.”
Ms Hall is described as white and 6ft tall with dark brown hair.
She was last seen wearing a blue hoodie with a John Deere logo and dark jogging bottoms.
Her family told police she may have been carrying a green jacket and had her hair up in a ponytail.
Anyone who believes they may have seen Ms Hall or has any relevant information about her whereabouts is asked to contact police.
UK
Salman Rushdie attack: Hadi Matar found guilty of attempted murder after stabbing author multiple times on stage
A man has been found guilty of attempted murder for attacking author Sir Salman Rushdie.
The 77-year-old British-American writer was stabbed multiple times as he was preparing to give a speech in New York in 2022.
He was blinded in his right eye in the incident, suffered a severely damaged hand, and spent months recovering.
Following a trial in Chautauqua County Court, a jury convicted 27-year-old Hadi Matar of attempting to murder Sir Salman, after less than two hours of deliberations.
He was also found guilty of assault for wounding Henry Reese, who was on stage with Sir Salman at the time.
Matar gave no obvious reaction to the verdict, and quietly muttered “free Palestine” as he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
Hadi Matar was found guilty by a jury after less than two hours of deliberations. Pic: AP
The court heard Matar ran on to the stage at the Chautauqua Institution where the author was about to speak on 12 August 2022, and stabbed him in front of an audience.
The Indian-born writer, who spent most of the 1990s in hiding in the UK after receiving death threats over his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, was stabbed about 15 times.
Sir Salman was attacked in the head, neck, torso, and left hand. He also suffered damage to his liver and intestines.
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From 2024: Salman Rushdie recalls stabbing
‘I was dying’
During the trial, Sir Salman described the moment Matar attacked him and told the court: “I only saw him at the last minute.
“I was aware of someone wearing black clothes, or dark clothes and a black face mask. I was very struck by his eyes, which were dark and seemed very ferocious to me.
“I thought he was hitting me with his fist but I saw a large quantity of blood pouring onto my clothes.
“He was hitting me repeatedly. Hitting and slashing.”
The writer then said he felt “a sense of great pain and shock,” and added: “It occurred to me that I was dying. That was my predominant thought.”
The court also heard that Mr Reese, the co-founder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, had suffered a gash to his forehead in the attack.
‘Attack was unprovoked’
During closing arguments earlier on Friday, District Attorney Jason Schmidt showed the jury a video of the attack and said: “I want you to look at the unprovoked nature of this attack.
“I want you to look at the targeted nature of the attack. There were a lot of people around that day but there was only one person who was targeted.”
Matar’s defence team argued prosecutors did not prove he intended to kill the writer, with Andrew Brautigan telling the jury: “You will agree something bad happened to Mr Rushdie, but you don’t know what Mr Matar’s conscious objective was.”
Mr Schmidt said that while it was not possible to read Matar’s mind, “it’s foreseeable that if you’re going to stab someone 10 or 15 times about the face and neck, it’s going to result in a fatality”.
The judge set a sentencing date of 23 April, when Matar could be jailed for up to 25 years.
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Matar faces a separate, federal indictment from prosecutors in the US attorney’s office in western New York alleging that he attempted to murder Sir Salman as an act of terrorism.
He is also accused of providing material support to the armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the US has designated as a terrorist organisation.
Three brothers have been jailed after underage girls in Leeds and Barrow-in-Furness were sexually abused and raped over a number of years.
The trio were convicted in October last year, with the abuse taking place between 1996 and 2010.
Shaha Amran Miah, 49, known as Jai; Shaha Alman Miah, 47, known as Ali; and Shah Joman Miah, 38, known as Sarj all pleaded not guilty.
Sarj has since admitted his crimes. However, the judge said it could be a cynical attempt for leniency and did not give him any credit.
Shaha Amran Miah, Shaha Joman Miah and Shaha Alman Miah. Pic: Cumbria Police
They were sentenced on Friday to the following:
Shaha Amran Miah – life with a minimum term of 20 years and 338 days.
Shaha Alman Miah – 10 years in prison and four years on licence.
Shah Joman Miah – life with a minimum term of 21 years and 232 days.
Preston Crown Court heard Sarj and Jai regularly sexually abused two children at a Leeds mosque over many years, beginning when the victims were seven.
The three also preyed on vulnerable and underage girls at a flat above their family’s takeaway in Barrow, Cumbria, between 2008 and 2010.
They gave them cigarettes, alcohol, food and even hair extensions in what barrister Tim Evans KC called a “classic grooming technique”.
He said the brothers worked as a team and “created an environment in Barrow in which each of them could abuse young girls”.
Judge Unsworth KC said they had shattered the lives of their victims and hid in plain sight in the Cumbria town.
Multiple schoolgirls in their uniforms were regularly seen at the takeaway, the judge said, with Jai acting ruthlessly to stop them going to the police.
The court heard Sarj would take one of the girls to a hotel for sex about twice a month and became increasingly controlling – to the point she remains on medication and is terrified of seeing him in the street.
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A witness told Sky News the men abused their victims in a dingy room above the takeaway that “looked like a crackhouse” and had mattresses on the floor and sheets covering the windows.
“They knew exactly how young they were,” she said. “They didn’t only have one girlfriend each… they had multiple.”
Shaha Amran Miah was found guilty of 16 sexual offences against three girls, including rape, as well as two charges of intimidation and one of kidnap.
Shaha Alman Miah was found guilty of three counts of sexual activity with a child.
Shah Joman Miah was convicted of sexually abusing three children. There were nine counts of rape of a child among his 40 offences.
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