Households looking to stick to a budget on their grocery shopping could save up to almost £500 a year by switching to one supermarket's own-label products.
As the cost of living crisis continues to bite, a series of blind taste tests from Which? and Good Housekeeping has found that shoppers can save money without skimping on quality by swapping major brands for Lidl's own-label items.
Taste tests from the two institutions found that by simply swapping out eight major brands such as Nutella, SunPat and Linda McCartney, shoppers could save £470 a year off their shopping bill.
Switching from major brands to supermarket value brands has become an increasingly popular choice among shoppers, with many saying that the lower price doesn't equal lower quality.
In fact, many of them are said to be just as good, with findings from the series of taste tests finding that basic items such as coffee, peanut butter and olive oil from the supermarket chain ranked higher than branded versions.
Consumer champion website Which? conducted a series of tests that found items such as chocolate spread, coffee, peanut butter, olive oil and ice cream cones from Lidl were better than major brands.
One test found that shoppers could save £100 a year on coffee by switching from the Illy Espresso Medium Roast Ground Coffee priced at £6.50 for Lidl's Bellarom Italian Ground Coffee at £1.79.
A further £49 a year could be saved on chocolate spread as Lidl's Choco Nussa Spread, which retails at £1.45 for a 400g jar, beat out Nutella's £3.35 350g jar.
Lidl's Mister Choc Crunchy Peanut Butter which costs just £1.25 for a 340g jar also ranked higher than SunPat's £3 400g jar, meaning shoppers could save £45 per year on the basis a jar is bought every two weeks.
A further £30 could be saved by making the switch to Lidl's Deluxe Puglian Extra Virgin Olive Oil at £4.19 from Waitrose's No.1 Chianti Classico Olive Oil P.D.O priced at £12.50.
Further taste tests from Good Housekeeping Institute found that Lidl's Vemondo vegan sausages (£1.59) beat out Linda McCartney's brand which costs £2.50 - saving shoppers a further £47.32.
Vegan fans can be further rest assured they don't have to skimp on quality as Lidl's £1.59 Vemondo vegan burgers beat out fan favourites Moving Mountains which cost £4.
Shoppers could save an extra £57.72 per year by switching to Lidl's Mature Cheddar Slices which cost just £1.99 for 250g, compared to M&S' same size British Mature Cheddar 10 slices at £3.10.
Peter de Roos, Chief Commercial Officer at Lidl GB, comments: "These independent, industry-leading tests illustrate that Lidl's own label products are better than some of Britain’s best-loved brands, yet at lower prices.
"More people are switching to Lidl for this reason, and we remain focused on helping shoppers make real savings – without having to compromise on taste or quality."
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