Supermarkets and food brands have been found to have changed the recipes of products to save money while still increasing the price for shoppers, a Dispatches and Which? investigation has found.
Researchers for the Dispatches ‘Less for More: The Truth About Food Prices’ programme, which airs tonight on Channel 4, found the recipes of products on sale now had changed compared to those found in online archives with expensive ingredients stripped out, a practice known as skimplation.
Supermarkets including Tesco and Morrisons, along with brands such as Ella’s Kitchen and Jacobs were found to have changed recipes.
For example, Morrisons Roast Beef Dinner and Yorkshire Pudding was found to have contained a quarter more Yorkshire pudding and 15% more beef last year.
The grocer’s Morrisons The Best Lasagne Al Forne has also reduced its beef content from 30% to 26%.
A Morrisons spokesman told MailOnline: “This is an unprecedented period of inflation and we are working hard to keep prices down and competitive for our customers while maintaining high standards and availability in all our stores.”
Similarly, Tesco Beef Lasagne had allegedly gone from 23% beef to 19%, while mushrooms are now among the ingredients and salt has risen by a third.
Meanwhile, Tesco Greek Style Yoghurt had reduced its fat from 9.5% to 7.5%, while the price had gone from 50p in 2020 to £1.10.
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Tesco told the publication: “We are always looking for ways to improve our recipes, not only to make them taste better, but also to provide products that are healthier for our customers and better for the planet.”
“We have removed more than 71bn calories from our own brand ranges since 2018 as part of our work to create healthier products, and have set ourselves a target of 65% healthy sales by 2025.”
Sources told MailOnline that the natural yoghurt changes were made to make the product healthier, and taste tests for the new recipe found no negative impact on taste.
The beef lasagne is understood to have been changed for the same reason and the reformulated product performed better in taste tests.
The documentary is airs just weeks after the CMA found that three in four companies that make branded grocery products have hiked their prices faster than their costs have gone up.
The Dispatches investigation also looked at how the price of value ranges at supermarkets have soared higher than more premium ranges over the past year.
According to prices tracked by Which? across eight supermarkets, the price of a £50 basket had surged £11.50, compared to the £5 increase seen in a basket of premium products.
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