BACON and sausages have been blamed for powering food inflation to its highest level since records first began.
Meats including ham, poultry and lamb soared 16.3 per cent year-on-year in July, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed.
Combined with the price of dairy, grains and soft drinks and others the average overall food price levels out at 13.7 per cent.
The fierce price competition has led to the four leading supermarkets – Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco – slashing their instore prices.
Over the weekend Asda was selling two-pint bottles of milk for just 50p – its lowest price since 2001 – at a personal cost of £1m.
It has also cut the price of bread, butter, eggs, mince and some vegetables by 64 per cent to make them just 50p per pack.
Likewise Tesco has launched its biggest ever weekly promotion with cuts on thousands of everyday products, and Morrisons and Sainsbury's have announced similar reductions.
They all planned to announce further customer savings.
So the cost of food is on the whole up, but the big question is how does this hit the average shopper on the high street?
Taking 24 staple food items and portion sizes that would be suitable for a family of four's weekly shop Consumerwatch found that prices had risen much more than the latest official inflation round-up would suggest.
In fact with the help of online food comparison website mysupermarket.co.uk, it appears that food prices have shot up by an average of 27 per cent in a year – almost 14 per cent more than first supposed.
Imagining that a family of four might usually spend £100 on its weekly shop, this would equate to a price hike of £1,404 per year.
This is how the figures were worked out:
Comparison website mysupermarket.co.uk checked the prices on 24 supermarket basket staples as they were on August 7, 2007 and then again on August 7, 2008 at three leading supermarkets – Leeds-based Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's.
It found that dairy and wheat based products were worst hit by inflation, closely followed by fruit and vegetables.
Granulated sugar saw the largest decrease.
Almost all of the items were own branded where possible, and to make it a fair comparison products that were most alike in all three supermarkets were chosen.
In the staples food basket was a loaf of bread, bananas, apples, pack of three peppers, cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, milk, eggs, butter, cheese, minced beef, ham, peas, baked beans, pasta sauce, jam, sugar, corn flakes, pasta, rice, tea bags, orange juice and potatoes.
The foods that had seen the highest food price increases were basmati rice up 118.9 per cent to £1.97 per kilo at Tesco, fusilli pasta up 113.5 per cent to 79p per 500g at Sainsbury's and garden peas up 118.3 per cent per 907g to £1.79 also at Sainsbury's.
Johnny Stern, director of mysupermarket.co.uk, said: "This month we have seen the highest annual price increase on the staples basket since April this year.
"This indicates that shoppers need to keep an even closer eye on what they're spending.
"Shopping habits are changing – consumers are more cash-conscious and consequently, despite the overall price increases, there are a wide range of offers available in each store.
"This means that discerning shoppers can beat these rises and be smart about the way in which they shop."
Consumerwatch also spoke with several independent green grocers who were also feeling the pinch.
Wai-Yii Yeung, owner of Org organic deli on St George's Street in the city centre, sells mainly organic and locally produced items.
While she agrees that certain food prices – such as rice – have shot up, she is confident that this will not stop her customers from returning.
"Everything has gone up from the cost of the food to the cost of buying at every level. The thing with organic food is that if a customer wants it they'll get it."