Price of milk, cheese and butter up by 30%
Groceries like butters and spreads went up by 29.4%. Photo: Nathan Stirk/Getty
Butter, milk and cheese and other basic groceries have seen their price shoot up by 30% in the last year as inflation continues to squeeze UK households.
Which?’s supermarket food and drink inflation tracker revealed that milk saw a price increase of 26.3%, cheese was 22.3% costlier, bakery items were up by 19.5%, water was 18.6% more expensive and savoury pies, pastries and quiches saw an 18.5% jump in average price.
The consumer group’s tracker records the annual inflation of tens of thousands of food and drink products across three months at eight major supermarkets — Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado (OCDO.L), Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L), Tesco (TSCO.L) and Waitrose — to see how inflation is impacting everyday products.
Overall in December, food and drink inflation was at 15% overall across the eight retailers.
Utterly Butterly (500g) saw dramatic price rises at several supermarkets including Waitrose where it went from £1 to £1.95, an increase of 95%. Waitrose Duchy Organic Homogenised Semi-Skimmed Milk (1 pint/568ml) went from 65p to £1.22, a rise of 87.1%, and at Tesco, Creamfields French Brie (200g) went from 79p to £1.43, up by 81.59%.
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The biggest individual price hike on a food item across all the supermarkets was Quaker Oat So Simple Simply Apple (8x33g) at Asda which went from £1 on average in December 2021 to an average £2.88 in December 2022 — a sharp increase of 188%.
Sue Davies, Which? head of food policy, said: “We know food prices have risen exponentially in the last year and our inflation tracker shows the dramatic impact this is having on everyday products at the supermarket.
“Some households are already skipping meals to make ends meet and our findings show trust in supermarkets taking a hit as many people worry they are putting profits before the people suffering during this cost of living…
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