Data shows that some of the cheapest items sold by grocery groups from Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO) and J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY) to Aldi and Lidl have risen sharply in the last year, including household staples such as pasta.
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) collected data by ‘scraping’ roughly 1.5mln prices from supermarkets' websites every month.
Vegetable oil and pasta, up 65% and 60%, experienced the largest growth in the year to September.
Prices for tea bags were up nearly 46%, while chips, bread and biscuits all rose by more than a third.
ONS said, “crucially, these large rises in the cheapest available items are broadly in line with the average food prices reported within the ONS’s regular headline inflation measures.”
Much of the food price increases were attributed to the rising costs of raw materials, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the catalyst.
In particular, the war, which started in February this year, impacted the supplies of fertiliser, vegetable oils, wheat and animal feed.
For reference, the price of wheat per bushel surged to US$1,237 on May 15 from US$855 on 28 February.
Since then, however, prices have stabilised, with wheat per bushel at US$832, suggesting that prices on the shelves could soon be retreating.
Orange juice fell 9% in the year, while minced beef fell 7%, sugar 0.3% and rice 0.2%, although these are the only staples to have retreated in price in the 12 months to September.