Updated: 16 May 2023

What's happening to supermarket food prices?

The Which? monthly food inflation tracker reveals food price changes broken down by range, supermarket and grocery items

Ellie Simmonds

Which?'s groundbreaking supermarket inflation tracker reveals the supermarkets – and types of food and drink – with the fastest rising prices.

Overall, inflation is at one of its highest levels in more than 40 years, according to the Office for National Statistics. But our research goes a step further and is the first publicly available tracker looking solely at supermarket food and drink inflation. It reveals that many of the everyday products consumers rely on are increasing in price far more sharply than the headline rate of inflation.

Our price tracker will run monthly and look at tens of thousands of prices. What really sets it apart is its ability to dig into supermarket inflation in depth, revealing:

Which supermarkets have the highest and lowest inflation every month
Which types of food and drink are rising in price the fastest
How branded groceries compare with own-label ones
Whether budget ranges or more premium products are going up faster in price.

Our tracker looks at 20 popular categories of food and drink at eight supermarkets: Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. It compares prices across the same three-month and one-month periods year-on-year, including discounts but not multibuys or loyalty card offers. We weight the figures based on supermarket market share and the sales volume of each product category.

April 2023

Annual inflation for the popular supermarket food and drink in our tracker was 17.0% in the three months to 30 April 2023, and 17.1% in the one month to 30 April 2023. The three-month period included 24,643 product price points and the one-month period included 26,549.

Which supermarket had the fastest rising prices?

The latest figures show that products at Lidl have the highest levels of inflation – up 24.9% for the one month to 30 April. This is closely followed by Aldi at 22.9%.

Supermarket	Quarterly inflation to the end of April 2023	Monthly inflation to the end of April 2023
Lidl	25.7%	24.9%
Aldi	23.1%	22.9%
Morrisons	17.4%	18.4%
Asda	17.1%	17.5%
Sainsbury's	14.4%	14.7%
Tesco	14.4%	14.5%
Waitrose	13.6%	13.1%

Source: Which? Supermarket Inflation Tracker. Inflation is annual, based on the three months and one month to the end of April 2023 compared with the same periods a year earlier. The three-month figure may be more robust as it covers a longer time period, however the one-month figure reflects recent changes in inflation more clearly.

Remember, inflation is a measure of how quickly prices are rising or falling and not of absolute price. The supermarkets with the highest inflation may also be the cheapest.

Find out more: which is the cheapest supermarket this month?

Which foods are getting more expensive?

Our tracker also reveals how inflation varies between different types of product categories.

Cheese is still the fastest rising in price of all 20 categories in our research. Milk and yoghurts are also among the worst-hit categories.

Type of food or drink	Quarterly inflation to the end of April 2023	Monthly inflation to the end of April 2023
Cheese	25.4%	25.5%
Milk	24.2%	22.9%
Yoghurts	21.0%	21.8%
Butters & spreads	23.5%	21.6%
Water	19.0%	20.3%
Cakes and cookies	19.0%	19.4%
Bakery	20.2%	19.3%

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Are branded or own-label groceries worst for inflation?

The tracker also compares branded and own-label groceries by inflation.

Currently, branded food and drink has a lower inflation rate than own label. Branded items are rising at 13.8% and own-label budget items at 24.8% year-on-year in the one month to the end of April 2023.

Range of groceries	Quarterly inflation to the end of April 2023	Monthly inflation to the end of April 2023
Own-label budget	24.7%	25.0%
Own-label standard	20.3%	20.2%
Own-label premium	14.7%	13.5%
Branded	13.7%	13.8%

Find out more: 8 things you should know about budget groceries

Why are food prices rising?

Prices for feed, fertiliser and fuel, which are all needed to produce food and drink, have risen dramatically due to the war in Ukraine. This has been coupled with the knock-on effects of disruption during the pandemic as well as spiralling energy and labour costs.

Which? is campaigning for supermarkets to step up to help shoppers with the cost of living. Our Affordable Food For All campaign calls on supermarkets to commit to clear pricing and better access to budget ranges.

Do you want to see your supermarket take action to support you through the cost of living crisis? Sign our Affordable Food For All petition

How has inflation changed over time?

Inflation has risen sharply to 17.0% in the three months to 30 April 2023, compared with 5.1% in the three months to 31 May 2022.

Source: Which? Supermarket Inflation Tracker. Inflation is annual, based on three-month periods compared with the same time a year earlier. Sizes of the sample of products in the tracker for each period are as follows: March to May 23,428; April to June 23,415; May to July 23,685; June to August 23,636; July to September 23,697; August to October 23,480; September to November 23,315; October to December 23,976; November to January 2023 24,022; December to February 2023 23,212; January to March 2023 23,974, February to April 24,643.

Which supermarket had the fastest rising prices?

The graph below shows the supermarkets where prices are rising fastest.

Source: Which? Supermarket Inflation Tracker. Inflation is annual, based on three-month periods compared with the same time a year earlier.

Remember, inflation is a measure of how prices are rising and not of absolute price. The supermarkets with the highest inflation may also be the cheapest.