UK grocery price inflation has hit another peak, prompting customers to switch to ‘wonky’ fruit and vegetables to cut costs, according to survey figures from data analytics firm Kantar.

Grocery price inflation reached just shy of 14% over the past four weeks ending October 2, with the average household’s annual grocery bill now set to soar to £5,265 - if consumers were to buy the same products as they did last year.

‘We‘re generally reluctant to change what we eat, so this is more about sticking to the food we know and love while hunting for cheaper alternatives like supermarkets’ own label goods. We aren’t seeing dramatic evidence of diets changing. For example, while frozen veg sales have gone up slightly, there hasn’t been a big switch away from fresh products, which are still worth ten times more,’ said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail & consumer insight at Kantar.

In an effort to cope with rising prices, people are increasingly turning to own-label value products, with sales of these increasing by 8.1% in September, whilst branded items declined by 0.7%.

Figures from Kantar also suggest that customers are switching to ‘imperfect’ products, such as ‘wobbly fruit and veg.’

McKevitt added: ‘We’ve seen grocers making a virtue of visually imperfect fruit and vegetables in recent years, allowing them to carry on offering the fresh products consumers want but at a cheaper price. Many shoppers have been converted and sales of ranges like Tesco Perfectly Imperfect or Morrisons Naturally Wonky were up collectively by 38% this month.’

Whilst ‘imperfect’ products offer environmental benefits by helping to cut food waste, it appears that the scale of inflation is outweighing sustainability concerns for customers.

‘The proportion of British shoppers who try to buy products with more environmentally friendly packaging has slipped to 59%, down from 62% last year. Currently 13.5% of all fruit and vegetables are bought loose rather than pre-packed, so that’s still less than the 15% level we were at just before the pandemic,’ McKevitt explained.

Yet, even with rising prices, there has been an 18% surge in marmalade sales as the nation paid its respects to Queen Elizabeth II.

Lidl remains the fastest growing grocer, for the fifth month in a row. Its sales were up 20.9% year-on-year over the 12-week period to October 2 at £2.15 billion, taking its share of the UK market up to 7.1% from 6.2%.

Low-budget peer Aldi also had a strong performance but remained marginally behind Lidl. Aldi’s sales were up 20.7% to £2.79 billion. Its market share rose to 9.3% from 8.0%.

Grocer Asda led the way among the more ‘traditional supermarkets’. Its sales were boosted by 4.5% to £4.32 billion, though its market share still slipped to 14.3% from 14.4% year-on-year.

Morrisons sales slipped 3.9% annually to £2.72 billion. Its market share fell to 9.0% from 9.8%.

Tesco PLC remained the largest supermarket with a 27.0% market share of the UK grocery market and sales of £8.13 billion, up 2.5% year-on-year. However, its market share dipped from 27.6% a year earlier.

The market share of J Sainsbury PLC fell to 14.7% from 14.9% a year before, but its sales increased by 3.0% to £4.42 billion.

Ocado Group PLC’s market share was unchanged at 1.6%, though sales rose 5.3% year-on-year to £496 million.

Kantar data is based on over 75,000 identical products compared year-on-year in the proportions purchased by British shoppers.

Shares in Ocado were down 1.6% at 430.66 pence in London. Tesco shares were up 0.1% at 206.30p. Sainsbury’s shares were up 0.4% at 173.61p.

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