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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Iceland lowers price of baby formula
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”.
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
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 professional footballer has been jailed for causing the death of a cyclist in a car crash.
Mansfield Town forward Lucas Akins crashed into Adrian Daniel in his Mercedes G350 in Huddersfield on 17 March 2022, while taking his daughter to a piano lesson.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Mr Daniel, 33, suffered catastrophic head injuries and died 10 days later.
Akins, 36, played in Mansfield’s 0-0 draw with Wigan on 4 March, hours after pleading guilty at Leeds Crown Court to death by careless or inconsiderate driving.
The footballer has continued to play for Mansfield since the incident.
Judge Alex Menary said on Thursday that he had considered imposing a suspended sentence, but had concluded that only an immediate sentence of 14 months’ imprisonment was appropriate.
Mansfield Town’s Akins. Pic: George Wass/PPAUK/Shutterstock
A spokesperson for Mansfield Town FC said it “acknowledges” the court’s decision and offered the club’s “sincere and deepest condolences to the family of Adrian Daniel at this difficult time”.
“The club is considering its position with regards to Lucas and will be making no further comment at this stage,” the spokesperson added.
‘Like hell’
Prosecuting, Carmel Pearson said it was a “difficult junction to emerge from” but that the defendant “did not stop at the give-way sign”.
Savanna Daniel, Mr Daniel’s wife, told the court it had been “like hell and a nightmare [she is] not waking up from”.
“There was no reason for Adrian to be killed that way,” she said, adding it was “too simple a collision to have taken a life”.
Adrian Daniel. Pic: West Yorkshire Police/PA
Mrs Daniel said she did not want Akins’s children growing up without their father as she did not want “any more lives to be destroyed from this”, but she criticised the defendant for failing to plead guilty at an earlier stage.
Tim Pole, representing Akins, said he was “fundamentally a decent, honest and hard-working individual”.
“I want to publicly apologise on his behalf,” he said.
Mr Pole added that Akins understood Mrs Daniel’s “frustration and anger” over the time it took him to plead guilty.
Handing down his sentence, the judge accepted that Akins’s remorse was genuine but by not admitting to the offence at an earlier stage, he had prolonged Mrs Daniel’s “heartache and grief”.
After the sentencing, Mrs Daniel said “three years of hell” had come to a close, in a statement via West Yorkshire Police.
She said Akins had made a “farce” of the justice system and that his failure to plead guilty sooner “makes a mockery of any remorse that Akins offers for his actions”.
Akins, who has played for Mansfield Town since 2022 and was previously with clubs including Huddersfield Town, Tranmere Rovers and Burton Albion, was also suspended from driving for 12 months.
Much of the UK will bask in warm, sunny conditions at the start of next week, with inland temperatures up to 10C higher than average, but it’s a mixed picture before then.
The first half of spring brought warmth and sunshine for many, but the last 10 days have been more changeable.
Some areas of Ireland, Northern Ireland, southwest Wales, and southwest England have seen much-needed rainfall, whereas parts of northern Britain have observed very little.
See the latest weather forecast where you are
Warm, sunny conditions, such as those in Harrogate on Thursday, are expected at the start of next week. Pic: PA
Tyne and Wear in northeast England has recorded just 7% of its average April rainfall, whereas Cornwall in the southwest of the country has already seen 156%.
And the Milford Haven rain gauge in Wales has seen over twice its average April rainfall.
There’ll be more rain over the next few days, mainly in the West, but it looks like high pressure will settle things down from Sunday.
Temperatures will rise too, becoming widely above average on Monday and Tuesday.
Highs of 22C (72F) to 24C (75F) can be expected.
The highest temperature of the year so far is 24C (75F), seen at Northolt in northwest London on Saturday 12 April.
The settled conditions will bring plenty of sunshine, with UV levels expected to be around moderate.
Tree pollen levels will be high in the South, low to moderate in the North.
What happens from next Wednesday onwards is unclear.
A thundery breakdown is possible from the South, or wet and windy conditions may move in from the North West.
Other computer models suggest high pressure will hold on, with the fine weather continuing and potentially higher temperatures.
The last time that 25C (77C) was reached in April was during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
The highest temperature ever recorded in April was 29.4C (85F), seen at Camden Square in London on 16 April 1949.
All this means that it will be quite warm for the London Marathon, which will take place this Sunday.
Temperatures will be around 11-12C (52-54F) at the start, potentially peaking at a warm 22C (70F).
That’s a little off the highest temperature ever recorded for the race, which stands at 24.2C (76F) seen at St James’s Park in 2018.
But it will be a lot higher than the 12.6C (55F) seen last year.
Read more on Sky News:
Tesco apologises to ‘humiliated’ customer
Children growing up around knife crime
Shoplifting hits record high
It’ll be dry for runners and spectators, with sunny spells and light winds.
Competitors in the Manchester Marathon on Sunday will face similar conditions to London’s runners; it should be dry with sunny spells. The temperature first thing will be around 9C (48F), but it’ll warm up with a high of about 19C (66F).
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway