Aldi's Chadderton store featured in a special ITV report as the broadcaster investigated food inflation and the ways customers can shop for less.

It's no secret Aldi takes the crown when it comes to cutting costs during the weekly food shop - and the consumer group Which? recently backed this claim, giving Aldi the coveted title of the UK's cheapest supermarket for the past four months on the bounce.

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Aldi was also considered the cheapest in 2021 and 2022 - and for 11 months throughout 2023 with Lidl briefly snatching the crown for a month in October last year.

As the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, a special report by ITV aired on Thursday, April 25 which investigated why high food inflation has affected prices and looked at ways consumers can spend less when putting food on the table.

As part of the segment, the broadcaster also filmed the Aldi store in Chadderton.

The programme discussed how food inflation soared to its highest rate in 45 years to 19 per cent last year and, while inflation has come down, reporters discovered this hasn't translated into reduced prices.

ITV reporter, Kate Quilton, found her essential food shop of milk, margarine, eggs, bread, coffee and sugar came to £5.85 back in 2004 - which has more than doubled to £11.94 for the same items today.

As for the average UK household, shoppers are spending around £103 on groceries and essential items, which is up around 18 per cent from 12 months ago.

The show then gave consumers advice from meal planning to buying tinned, frozen food and supermarket's own branded produce where possible to curb costs.

A spokesperson for Which? said the consumer group does a 'cheapest supermarket basket' every month and revealed Aldi and Lidl "always come out on top".  

As a result, Aldi and Lidl saw record sales at the end of last year which Former Buying Director of Aldi UK, Paul Stainton, told ITV is because they typically have smaller stores, fewer staff and shift huge volumes of produce at a limited range of around 2,000 items, meaning they can move larger volumes through production and operational chains more efficiently.

ITV then examined whether supermarket loyalty schemes offer genuine discounts with several big brand supermarket giants recently offering Aldi price match schemes.

Shoppers queried whether the higher price for non-members is actually the standard price for that product, or whether it has all become a "gimmick".

However, supermarkets told ITV that they do not inflate the base price of their products when offering a deal.

Aside from Aldi and Lidl, there are other ways consumers can curb costs and spare food waste in the process by shopping at retailers such as Rogers which sells produce after their best-before date - and at a much cheaper rate.

The app, Too Good to Go, was also a feature of the show as customers can buy a 'surprise' bag of goodies from their local shops and supermarkets that otherwise would have been thrown away.

The Oldham Times recently put Too Good To Go to the test by picking up goodie bags from Oldham's supermarkets for an entire week.

I spent just £17 which stretched to 15 meals, not including desserts and sweet treats on top, and saved around £32.

The items would have come to £49 if I had picked the same items at full price from the supermarket shelves.

ITV also gave shoppers advice on how to make the food shop last even longer by freezing items.

Kate Hall, the author of 'The Full Freezer Method', suggested categorising each compartment in the freezer and freezing items flat, including milk and eggs.

Another food blogger on the show also advised a family of four how to cook a meal for £5 or less.

Meanwhile, ITV spoke to farmers about the issues they face when it comes to producing food and found environmental factors, such as the weather and climate change, are taking their toll.

Finally, Jo Payne from the community gardening group, Manchester Urban Diggers, spoke to ITV about growing your own produce - and advised focusing on herbs and crops that can give multiple harvests such as beans, tomatoes and kale.

She also said while there can be some upfront costs to get going, this can also be mitigated by using things such as old egg cartons and mushroom trays to grow food in.

When contacted by The Oldham Times, Aldi confirmed its Chadderton shop was filmed for the special report.

The ITV Tonight show, 'Food costs: Can you spend less?' can be watched on catch-up and online.

Got a story? Email me Olivia.bridge@newsquest.co.uk