Kantar has announced that UK food price inflation reached 17.1% in the four weeks to 19 February, the highest since their records began in 2008. Grocery prices increased by 8.8% over the previous four weeks and by 8.1% over the 12-week period.

For an average household buying the same average basket of groceries, this means the cost will have increased by £811 (€921) compared with a year ago. Food price inflation has increased four-fold according to Kantar, as grocery price inflation was at 4% in February 2022.

Kantar has also reported that consumers respond to rising food prices by switching from brands to own label grocery products.

Own label sales grew by 13.2% over the past four weeks, compared to branded products growing by just 4.6%.

Consumers also responded by switching supermarkets. Aldi and Lidl combined increased their market share by 2.4%, with Aldi on a record high of 9.4%. Tesco remains in top place with 27.3% of market share, followed by Sainsbury’s on 15.2% and Asda on 14.3%.