Having taken flak for fruit & veg shortages, the supermarkets are now under the hammer again. This time, it’s from parents claiming their food is too expensive.

A poll of more than 10,000 people, commissioned by the Food Foundation and dissected by experts at the London’s School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, accuses retailers of a lack of “meaningful” action to tackle the cost of living crisis.

The Food Foundation has even given supermarkets six months to get their act together, promising spot patrols to see if they respond to calls for regular promotions on fruit & veg, price cuts to bread and milk and for healthy yoghurts to be made cheaper than unhealthy ones, among other demands.

The claims have left retailers seething. As they point out, you don’t have to be a scientist at the London School of Tropical Hygiene to see how supermarkets are rushing to outdo each other on price. They are already chock-full of cheap fruit & veg – if that produce is available, of course.

Aldi’s super six, Tesco’s fresh five and free fruit for kids, Sainsbury’s ’Taste Me, Don’t Waste Me’ box of surplus for £2, Lidl’s £1.50 for 5kg offer… the list goes on.

Experts at Cambridge University told The Grocer last month they had flagged up no less than 75 initiatives by supermarkets to tackle the cost of living – and promotions aimed at hard-up families were the key vehicle.

The latest such offer came from Morrisons this week, in the form of a two-course meal for an entire family for £8.99. Yes, the kids’ meals did include nuggets and chips, but there was also free fruit.

What has most riled supermarket bosses is they are facing two contrary lines of criticism. While facing accusations of making fresh produce too expensive, they have also taken flak for pushing too hard on value, thereby creating shortages of those very same products.

Last week, Grocer columnist Joanna Blythman savaged supermarket bosses for refusing to pay more to support British farmers, and jeopardising supply in the process.

“The multiples could have used their collective buying power to build the nation’s food security by actively supporting British suppliers,” she said. “Instead, they play them off on price against foreign competitors, offering only wafer-thin margins while complacently expecting them to absorb unpredictable cost rises.”

Over the weekend, National Food Strategy author and Leon founder Henry Dimbleby also weighed in on the row, by attacking the “weird supermarket culture”.

“If there’s bad weather across Europe, because there’s a scarcity, supermarkets put their prices up – but not in the UK,” he told The Guardian. “And therefore at the margin, the suppliers will supply to France, Germany, Ukraine.”

Unsurprisingly, supermarket bosses are speculating whether the ire of the Food Foundation might be better aimed at those who want to see prices go up.

“The Food Foundation should be speaking to the farmers who are calling for the prices of many fresh food items to rise,” says one source. “We’re in an impossible position between many customers calling for lower prices, and farmers calling to be paid more for their produce.”

That argument, of course, would perhaps attract more sympathy were it not for the billions in profits set to be recorded this year by the UK’s biggest supermarkets.

But might there be an element of wanting to have your cake (or, rather, fruit) and eat it, in the latest blast.

It’s worth bearing in mind it was only in October that the Food Foundation State of the Nation’s Food Industry report praised the “forward-thinking” efforts of several supermarkets including Lidl, Tesco and Sainsbury’s in setting targets to improve the health of the food they sell.

That was in stark contrast to the “little or no effort” it recorded from the catering sector, restaurant chains or fast-food outlets. Greggs was the only quick service restaurant to have set a target for sales of healthy food.

The same Greggs announced sales growth of nearly a quarter this week as its sausage rolls, sandwiches and vegan snacks continued to attract cost-conscious customers, despite having pushed through higher prices.

What would the Food Foundation say to that?

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