Supermarket shoppers hit with problem buying toothpaste or oats at supermarkets

A warning has been issued to shoppers buying porridge, toothpaste, coffee and several other common household staples. A new investigation by consumer magazine Which? has found the products which have been hit hardest by 'shrinkflation', which sees items reducing in size or quality while the price remains the same or even increases.

One of the worst examples found in its investigation was Aquafresh Complete Care Original Toothpaste, which increased in price from £1.30 for 100ml to £2 for 75ml at Tesco, Sainsbury's, and Ocado, a 105% increase. Which? also found that Sainsbury's Scottish Oats were halved in size from 1kg to 500g while the price increased at the same time, up from £1.25 to £2.10, a 236% increase per 100g.

Nescafé Original Instant Coffee's price rose 5% at Tesco, Morrisons, and Asda, shrinking from 200g to 190g.

Chocolate bars and chocolate biscuits have also been hit hard, with some now no longer legally qualifying as chocolate at all.

Which? found a reduced amount of cocoa butter, now less than 20%, in White KitKats, meaning they can no longer be marketed as a white chocolate product.

It follows McVitie's favourites including Penguin and Club bars now containing more palm oil and shea oil than cocoa, meaning they can no longer be lawfully sold as a chocolate biscuit.

Multipack bars are also dwindling, Which? found KitKat Two-Finger Milk Chocolate Bar multipacks dropped from 21 bars to 18, while at Ocado the price also rose from £3.60 to £5.50, a jump of 53%.

Cadbury's multipacks of Freddo and Fudge bars both dropped from five bars to four at Morrisons, Ocado and Tesco even though the price of £1.40 did not change.

Which? Retail editor Reena Sewraz said: "Households are already under immense financial pressure with food bills inching up and the expense of Christmas looming on the horizon, so it can feel especially sneaky when manufacturers quietly reduce pack sizes or downgrade key ingredients.

"Supermarkets must be more upfront about their prices so that it's easy to see what the best value is.

"This includes ensuring that their unit pricing is prominent, legible and consistent in-store and online to help customers easily compare costs across different brands and sizes of packaging - that way shoppers can be more confident they're getting the best value."

A spokeswoman for Mondelez International, which makes Cadbury products, said: "We understand the economic pressures that consumers continue to face and any changes to our product sizes is a last resort for our business.

"However, as a food producer, we are continuing to experience significantly higher input costs across our supply chain, with ingredients such as cocoa and dairy, which are widely used in our products, costing far more than they have done previously.

"Meanwhile, other costs like energy and transport, also remain high.

"This means that our products continue to be much more expensive to make and while we have absorbed these costs where possible, we still face considerable challenges

"As a result of this difficult environment, we have had to make the decision to slightly reduce the weight of our Cadbury Fudge and Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo multipacks so that we can continue to provide consumers with the brands they love, without compromising on the great taste and quality they expect."

A spokesman for Nestle said: "Like every manufacturer, we have seen significant increases in the cost of coffee, making it much more expensive to manufacture our products.

"As always, we continue to be more efficient and absorb increasing costs where possible.

"To maintain the same high quality and delicious taste that consumers know and love, it has sometimes been necessary to make adjustments to the weight or size of some of our products.

"Retail pricing is always at the discretion of individual retailers."

In relation to the White KitKat, he added: "Like every manufacturer, we've seen significant increases in the cost of cocoa over the past years making it much more expensive to manufacture our products.

"As always, we continue to be more efficient and absorb increasing costs where possible.