Supermarket food prices are up, study reveals

After Nielsen highlighted that grocery sales improved by 5.8% this September compared to the same month last year, the report by mySupermarket.co.uk revealed that the cost of a staples basket at Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's has risen by 20% on average in the last 12 months.

According to the company, such increases equate to a growth in bills of £1,040 for a family of four each year.

Director of the price comparison site Johnny Stern said "enormous" price rises have been witnessed on a number of items, such as dairy, meat products and rice in the studied period.

"This month shows an overall rise of 5.9% on prices from September 2007- within which our staples have risen at nearly four times the rate.

"This shows that our regular purchases are those which are being hardest hit by the rising price of commodities and fuel, so shoppers still need to keep a close eye on what they're spending," he commented.

He urged consumers to look around for "better priced like-for-like items", with regular savings the key to beating the credit crunch.

TNS Worldpanel has also reported an overall turnover growth at all grocers of 7.3% in the past year.