The analysis also revealed that the prices of cheddar cheese, white bread and porridge oats are up by as much as 80%.
The impact of the vote to leave the European Union continues to be felt, with food inflation soaring to 17.2% and an expert from the Bank of England is in no doubt over what’s to blame.
Overall inflation on food and drink at supermarkets continued to rise in March to 17.2%, up from 16.5% the month before, inflation figures from Which? have found.
The analysis also revealed that the prices of cheddar cheese, white bread and porridge oats are up by as much as 80%.
Supermarket food and drink prices continued to rise in March, costing on average 17.2% more than in March 2022. However, some items rose far more than that.
Which? states: “Cheddar cheese, for example, increased by an average 28.3% across all the supermarkets in the three months to March 2023, compared to the same period the year before. But the worst example in our basket, Dragon Welsh Mature Cheddar 180g at Asda, went from £1 to £1.80 – an increase of 80% year on year.
“The cost of porridge oats went up by an average of 35.5% but the worst example was at Ocado where Quaker Oat So Simple Protein Porridge Pot Original 49g went from 94p to £1.56 – an increase of 65.5%.
“When we looked at large sliced white bread we found average increases of 22.8%. The Bakery at Asda Soft White Medium Sliced Bread 800g, however, went from 56p to 94p (an increase of 67%).”
The current cause of soaring food inflation, which has seen prices reach a 45 year high, can be put down to Brexit, a Bank of England expert has said.
Policy maker Catherine Mann, an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee, said that the costly red tape following Brexit had significantly impacted exporters from the EU who had stopped participating in that ‘traded marketplace’.
“The smaller exporters which provided additional supply, additional competitive pricing, what we have observed is those smaller exporters from the EU into the UK really have exited from participating in that traded marketplace,” she said previously.
“It gets too expensive to get over the red tape and so forth, so that’s an important ingredient.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
(Picture credit: Flickr)
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