batchelorssupernoodlesdonkeytvad_296876

Super Noodles from Premier Foods rose even more than the Heinz Beanz

Its advertising screams it’s ‘Super Noodle Tasty’ but the Batchelors classic, from Premier Foods, is costing 52% more than a year ago.

That meant the 90g chicken Super noodles pouch had the highest percentage increase in this week’s Grocer 33 pricing survey. Along with the Pledge furniture polish, it was one of two lines to increase in price by at least 50%.

But not far behind was the soft cheese, up 49% and the Heinz Beanz (see right), 43% more expensive than a year ago. Eight further items increased in price by more than 20%.

Just one item came down in price, with the New Covent Garden soup 3% cheaper.

Overall year-on-year inflation was 11.3% across the five retailers in our survey, while prices were up 0.9% month on month.

Asda provided the cheapest basket for the third week running. At £64.17 it was £3.26 cheaper than Morrisons. Asda offered the lowest price for 16 items and was exclusively cheapest for eight, including the coffee beans, lamb mince and Cravendale milk.

Morrisons was exclusively cheapest for five items including the Aveeno hand cream and Lotus Biscoff ice cream sticks.

Based on shelf-edge prices just 67p separated Morrisons and Sainsbury’s and Tesco in third and fourth place respectively. Sainsbury’s was exclusively cheapest for five items, including the hot cross buns.

Tesco’s only exclusively cheapest item was the broccoli and cauliflower florets. However, factoring in its Clubcard Prices initiative would have reduced its total to £64.63, just 46p pricier than Asda.

A whopping 16 promotions meant Waitrose was just £7.50 more expensive than Asda, with its basket up 8.4% year on year and down 6.4% month on month. It was exclusively cheapest for the carrots and, ironically, the Super Noodles.