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Where can you buy the cheapest barbecue ingredients?
The Great British barbecue is a much-cherished tradition – but with food inflation still rampant, it can be an expensive event to host.
A survey of 2,000 adults by bakery brand Baker Street found people typically host three barbecues each year, and attend four.
To help you shop for budget-friendly barbecue ingredients, or buy contributions for any you're attending, we analysed prices at the UK's biggest supermarkets to reveal where you can score the cheapest burgers, sausages, buns and more.
Cheapest supermarket for BBQ ingredients
We checked the prices of 13 barbecue food staples between 19 May and 19 June 2023 and found that Lidl offered the cheapest basket at £29.99, beating rival discounter Aldi by just 21p.
The chart below shows how much our basket cost on average:
The same or equivalent products at the priciest supermarket Ocado came to £41.64 on average. This made Lidl £11.65 (or 28%) cheaper on average than Ocado.
Of the 'big four' supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons), Tesco came out cheapest in our analysis, at £32.14.
What was in the basket?
- Quarter-pounder beef burgers
- Plant-based burgers
- Cumberland sausages
- Chicken breast fillets
- Chicken thighs
- Brioche burger buns
- Hot dog rolls
- Tomato ketchup
- Mayonnaise
- Barbecue sauce
- Cheddar slices
- Little gem lettuces
- Corn on the cob
Find out more: which is the UK's cheapest supermarket overall?
The biggest price differences
One of the biggest differences in average cost we uncovered were own-label pork sausages. These cost 75% more from Ocado than Aldi.
When it came to individual own-label items, the biggest percentage difference we found in prices was for a pack of four premium brioche burger buns. Aldi’s option was cheapest, at £1.05, but the equivalent pack was 195% more expensive at Ocado, costing £3.10.
Which? also found that six premium M&S pork sausages cost £4.25 from Ocado, 75% more than Aldi’s £2.43 option.
Morrisons had the cheapest burgers in our basket, costing £2.69 on average, while Asda’s option was the priciest, costing £3.50 - 30% more.
As for branded products, Heinz’s 910g Top-Down Tomato Ketchup was 13% more at Sainsbury’s (£4.50) than at Lidl (£3.99). The supermarkets were more closely aligned on Hellmann’s 430ml Light Mayonnaise Squeezy, though, with just a 5% difference between Aldi, Asda, Lidl and Tesco (£2.65) and Waitrose (£2.80).
Ele Clark, senior shopping editor at Which?, said: 'Many of us will be hosting barbecues this summer, but with the cost of food soaring, it’s well worth shopping around for the best prices. You could save more than £10 by picking up your BBQ essentials from the cheapest supermarket.
'Supermarkets should all be doing more to help their customers through the cost of living crisis. We want them to stock budget ranges in all their branches – including convenience stores – and make pricing clearer, particularly on loyalty card offers, so consumers can easily find the best deal for them.'
How did the supermarkets respond?
We put our findings to the eight supermarkets included in our research.
A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: ‘With costs going up, we are working hard to keep prices low. Over the last two years, we have invested over £560m into lowering prices as part of our goal to put food back at the heart of Sainsbury’s.
‘We're committed to doing everything we can to support customers with the rising cost of living. Through initiatives such as our Aldi Price Match campaign and Nectar Prices, customers can find low prices on the products they buy most often both in stores and online – including popular barbecue food items.'
Sainsbury's also disputed the price we had for its products, saying our figure was 10p higher than its own records. This wouldn't have affected Sainsbury's place in the rankings.
A Waitrose spokesperson told us: ‘We aren’t prepared to compromise on quality or welfare. For example, all our sausages - down to the cheapest, Essential Waitrose ones, which weren’t selected for this price comparison - are British made with pork reared outdoors.
‘Several of the items featured in this list have benefitted from price investment, totalling £100m across our range, and are now significantly cheaper than prices quoted by Which?.’
Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado and Tesco did not comment on the findings.
Which are the best-tasting burgers and sausages?
As well as revealing the cheapest place to shop for barbecue ingredients, we've blind-taste tested a range of burgers and sausages from 12 different brands.
Tesco Finest scooped the top spot for its sausages, but cheaper options from Lidl and Aldi tied for second place and received Which?’s Great Value recommendations. Both options excelled in terms of meaty flavour and moist texture.
Meanwhile, the pricey Heck-branded sausages came last overall, as three quarters of the panel felt the pork flavour was too weak, the seasoning lacklustre and the texture too coarse.
When it came to burgers, a panel of over 60 people blind-tasted 10 premium offerings from supermarkets including Aldi, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco, alongside branded offerings from Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Heck.
Aldi’s burgers took the top spot, securing Best Buy and Great Value recommendations. Gourmet Burger Kitchen didn’t perform as well, however, coming near the bottom of the table.
Beyond Meat triumphed in our test of meat-free burgers, and third-placed Meatless Farm was awarded a Great Value recommendation.
- Find out more: barbecue reviews
