Popular supermarket items like pasta, tinned tomatoes and strawberry jam now cost around 8% more than one year ago, new data has revealed.
New data released by the BBC shows the overall price of a basket of 15 standard food items rose by £1.32.
The data analysed came from the retail research firm Assosia, which tracked the average cost of grocery items at Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
More than 17,000 price increases occurred across the main supermarkets in January, more than double the number in the same month last year, and across every category.
Not all products have seen an increase, though. Items like carrots and mild cheddar fell slightly in price.
Assosia director Kay Staniland said the findings were a result of selecting popular products that were comparable across the ranges of value and standard.
She told the BBC: “Looking at food prices is a bit of a minefield.
“I think the figures show that retailers are trying to avoid the biggest increases to value lines as much as possible. But these value lines do make up a small part of total ranges. The standard mid-tier range is where the largest volume of sales come from.”
It comes after figures released last month from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) found shoppers are facing the highest price rises for almost ten years.
Food inflation rose from 2.4% in December to 2.7% in January, with price rises reaching the highest rate since October 2013, according to BRC.
