Price of chocolate soars despite falling food inflation

The price of chocolate is rising faster than any other type of grocery. 

While our research shows overall grocery prices are rising at their lowest level since our food and drink inflation tracker launched nearly two years ago, some products are bucking the trend.

These include many chocolate-based treats and also budget-range groceries, both of which are rising in price far more quickly than other supermarket groceries.

We analysed the prices of more than 26,000 food and drink items at eight major supermarkets to see how different products are being affected.

Read on to find out which food and drink types have been hiked by the most eye-watering amounts, and which are actually falling in price.

Chocolate soars in price

We looked at the prices of popular groceries at eight of the UK's largest supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose – and found overall year-on-year inflation was 2.7% in August 2024. That's down from 3% the last time our tracker ran in May.

But that headline figure disguises some big variations between different types of groceries and supermarkets, as well as differences between budget and premium groceries. 

Chocolate had the highest average annual inflation at 11%, followed by vegetables at 5% and energy drinks at 4.6%. 

But while the average rate of chocolate price inflation was 11%, some products have risen by much more than that: 

• Sainsbury's no added sugar milk chocolate (100g) from 95p to £1.84 at Sainsbury's – up 94%
• Prestat chocolates and truffles assortment (210g) from £17 to £32 at Ocado – up 88%
• Kinder happy hippo (20.7g) from 29p to 47p at Tesco – up 58%
• Ferrero Rocher three pack (37.5g) from £1 to £1.50 at Tesco – up 50%
• Booja Booja almond salted caramel chocolate truffles (92g) from £4.58 to £6.83 at Ocado – up 49%
• Cadbury family treatsize multipack (216g) from £2.50 to £3.72 at Sainsbury's – up 49%.

All prices are averages for the three months to the end of August 2023 vs the same period in 2024, and include regular discounts but not multibuys or loyalty prices. 

The tracker also showed the prices of own-label budget groceries rising much faster (at 7.3%) than those of standard own-label groceries (2.7%), branded (2.4%) or premium versions (3.1%). 

• Find out more: Which? food price inflation tracker

Is any food getting cheaper?

The good news for shoppers is that some groceries are actually getting cheaper. The average price of butters and spreads as an overall category was 1.6% less in August 2024 than August 2023. 

The average price of milk was 1.5% cheaper and cheese was 0.8% cheaper.

Dairy products saw some of the highest inflation during the cost of living crisis, generally peaking in late 2022 and early 2023. Butters and spreads recorded the highest annual inflation of all categories in our tracker, peaking in November 2022 at a whopping 30.6%. 

• Find out more: how to spend less at the supermarket

Why do food prices still feel so high?

The fact that annual supermarket food and drink inflation has fallen to 2.7% is encouraging. But this is still higher than overall inflation, which is 2.2% – and any level of inflation means that prices are still rising.

It's also worth bearing in mind that, while annual inflation is decreasing, this time last year prices had already spiralled to far higher levels than the year before that. We looked at two-year inflation and found that, in the three months to the end of August 2024, food and drink prices were 16.6% higher than the same period in 2022 – so it's no surprise that many households are still feeling the pinch.

Again, rises for some individual products were much higher. Here are some of the worst examples of two-year inflation we found: 

• Just essentials by Asda Pears (500g) from 45p to £1.17 at Asda – up 160%
• Asda snack size chocolate caramel chews (6 x 38g) from 65p to £1.56 at Asda – up 140%
• Coca-Cola classic cherry (8 x 330ml) from £2.37 to £5.57 at Ocado – up 135%
• Stockwell & Co sugar free cola (2 litres) from 17p to 40p at Tesco – up 135%

Find out more: which is the cheapest supermarket?

What do the supermarkets say?

We put our findings to the supermarkets. Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose declined to comment.

Asda said: 'Asda is consistently recognised as the best-value traditional supermarket in independent price comparison surveys, including the Grocer 33 basket comparison and the Which? monthly big shop trolley comparison. This is despite these surveys now including loyalty pricing.' It added that customers could make further savings by using the Asda Rewards app.