The cost of British food staples such as cheddar cheese, sausages, white bread and porridge oats have soared on a year ago, according to latest inflation figures from Which? Overall inflation on food and drink at supermarkets continued to rise in March to 17.2%, up from 16.5% the month before, the watchdog found.
Cheddar cheese prices increased by an average 28.3% across eight major supermarkets - Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose - compared to a year ago. However, one cheese, Dragon Welsh Mature Cheddar 180g at Asda, increased from £1 in the three months to the end of March last year to £1.80 across the same period this year - an 80% hike year on year.
The consumer group analysed inflation on more than 26,000 food and drink products at the eight supermarkets, and also selected a basket of staple foods including cheddar cheese, sliced white bread, pork sausages, white potatoes and porridge oats to find which of these everyday products had seen the biggest price hikes. The cost of porridge oats went up by an average of 35.5% across all eight supermarkets compared to the same time last year.
