Aldi is named Britain’s cheapest supermarket for 12th month in a row by Which?

Aldi was today named Britain’s cheapest supermarket for the 12th month in a row – with an average basket of goods costing £18 more than Waitrose.

Consumer researchers at Which? compared the average prices of a shop consisting of 40 popular groceries at eight of the UK’s biggest supermarkets.

Aldi was cheapest at £68.60 on average across the last month, while Lidl was just behind at £70.51 – a difference of £1.91, although the gap was up from 65p in April.

Aldi has remained the cheapest supermarket since May 2022. Waitrose was the most expensive – with a basket costing £86.91, or 23.5 per cent more than Aldi.

Which? does not share the 40 items used in its analysis to avoid supermarkets changing their pricing to sway the results, but it describes the goods as ‘popular groceries’.

The experts also compared the cost of a larger trolley of 131 items – the original 40, plus 91 more, which include a larger number of branded items such as Andrex toilet paper and Cathedral City cheese.

For this wider analysis, Which? does not include Aldi and Lidl because these are discounter supermarkets which do not always stock some of these products.

This month, Asda was again the cheapest for the trolley of groceries – a title it has held since January 2020.

Last month it cost £332.40 on average for such a shop at Asda – beating Morrisons, which was the next cheapest at £334.47, by just £2.07.

Waitrose was £31.59 more expensive than Asda for the trolley, coming in at £363.99 on average, which was 9.5 per cent more.

Which? retail editor Ele Clark said today: ‘The price of food and drink is continuing to soar, as people suffer through the worst cost of living crisis in decades.

Last month, the Office for National Statistics put food and drink price inflation at 19.1 per cent, which is potentially adding more than £800 to the cost of putting food on the table 

‘It’s no surprise to see many shoppers turning to discounters like Aldi and Lidl when our research shows they could make savings of more than £18 on a basket of everyday groceries.’

She claimed that supermarkets were not doing enough to help shoppers, adding that they have a ‘responsibility to ensure everyone has easy access to basic, affordable food ranges at a store near them’.

Ms Clark also said the major retailers needed to ‘provide transparent and comparable pricing so people can easily work out which products offer the best value’.

Which? said its analysis showed that ‘shoppers can make considerable savings on their groceries depending on where they buy their food’.

However it added that retailers needed to do more to ensure affordable basic ranges are available in all branches including convenience stores.

Food inflation remains very high, while the overall CPI inflation rate was 8.7 per cent in April 

The experts also called on supermarkets to improve unit pricing on all products, so that customers can easily work out the best value for them.

Which? said it includes special offer prices but not multi-buys or loyalty discounts in its analysis, to ‘keep it as fair as possible’.

The shopping list combines branded items such as Kenco coffee, PG Tips tea bags and Walkers crisps with own-label products, including onions and milk.

Which? said that while own-brand items are not exactly the same at different supermarkets, it uses experts to ensure that the products are as comparable as possible based on a range of factors such as weight and quality.

Julie Ashfield, Managing Director of Buying at Aldi UK, said: ‘We know it is a difficult time for many and we’re proud to have consistently been the cheapest supermarket in the UK – supporting our customers when it matters the most.’ 

And a Waitrose spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We regularly monitor the prices on our products and ensure that they’re fair and competitive, providing excellent quality, industry-leading animal welfare standards and fantastic customer services that provides a great shopping experience.’ 

It comes after supermarkets last week rubbished suggestions that Rishi Sunak might push for price controls on food essentials as a ‘meaningless and ineffective’ stunt.

The Government is at the drawing board stage of asking retailers to limit increases on certain products, such as bread and milk, against the background of the highest food inflation in 40 years.

Last month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) put food and drink price inflation at 19.1 per cent, which is potentially adding more than £800 to the cost of putting food on the table.

Supermarkets have rubbished suggestions that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (pictured in Dover yesterday) might push for price controls on food essentials as ‘meaningless and ineffective’

The Prime Minister and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have met food industry bosses to stress the need to help shoppers by bringing down prices.

It has now been suggested that Downing Street is ‘quietly’ discussing the idea of mirroring a voluntary price control regime that was introduced in France earlier this year. 

However, the proposal came as a complete surprise to furious food retailers, who said there have been absolutely no discussions on price controls.

As a result, ministers are at risk of picking a fight with supermarkets – and the right of the party – over what some see as a return to 1970s-style price controls.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove up food prices across the world because it led to higher energy, fertiliser, and raw ingredient costs on things like grain, which is used in farm animal feed, vegetable oils.

Research by the ONS suggest prices are falling more slowly in the UK than most industrialised economies. It said this was mainly because we are reliant on food imports.

The March rate of food price inflation was 21.2 per cent in Germany, versus 19.1 per cent in the UK, 16.9 per cent in France, 13.2 per cent in Italy, 9.7 per cent in Canada, 8.3 per cent in the USA and 8 per cent in Japan.

Downing Street figures have attempted to defuse the row by stressing any price caps would be voluntary rather than set by the Government.