Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts has denied the supermarket group is profiteering from the soaring prices of food.
In an interview with the BBC, Roberts said the grocery giant “absolutely had not” been using inflation as an excuse to push up prices to boost its earnings, a practice now termed greddflation.
"We made less profit year-on-year and that's because we made really conscious decisions to keep our prices as low as we could," Roberts said.
Supermarkets have come under increased criticism after recent ONS figures showed that food was the main reason that Britain’s rate of inflation is much higher than elsewhere.
Even though the general rate of inflation fell to 8.7% annually in April, food prices rose by 19% sparking calls for retailers to explain the difference.
Britain’s competition watchdog, the CMA, has opened an inquiry into how food markets operate in the UK.
Roberts added: "We made less profit year-on-year and that's because we made really conscious decisions to keep our prices as low as we could,"
Shares in Sainbury’s fell 0.7% to 273.1p.