Towards the end of 2007, a mySupermarket survey of the rising price of staple products caused quite a stir. Since the launch of mySupermarket in October 2005, we’ve kept a daily record of the price of every single product available at Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s and Ocado. With the rising price of basic ingredients like milk and wheat grabbing headlines, we decided to check how prices of the most popular staple products had changed over 12 months.

The results were astonishing! Prices of the most basic food had gone up by as much as 16% over 12 months. The results were reported by the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Sunday Times and Scotsman amongst others. We also compared the price of a Christmas shopping basket and found that Xmas Dinner 2007 could cost 6% more than it did the previous year. See the Mirror and People for more.

So what will 2008 bring us? It’s hard to know. It depends on global prices of wheat and other basic ingredients, as well as whether the supermarkets opt to genuinely keep prices low. One thing’s for sure – the only way to ensure that you pay less for your shopping is by getting mySupermarket to check it for you!

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You can check out today’s prices for the staple trolley here… or better still, why not try filling your own trolley to see who’s cheapest:

Thick Sliced White Loaf (800g), Kids Funsize Bananas (7), Golden Delicious Apples, Carrots (1Kg), Cucumber Portion, Iceberg Lettuce, Tomatoes (6), Maris Piper Potatoes (2.5Kg), British 6 Pints Semi-Skimmed Milk (3.41L), Medium Free Range Eggs (12), English Butter Salted (250g), English Mild Cheddar (Approx 250g), Fresh British Beef Mince (500g), Bernard Matthews Wafer Thin Turkey Ham (170g), Garden Peas (1Kg), Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce (420g), Dolmio Original Bolognese Sauce (500g), Strawberry Jam (454g), Silver Spoon Half Spoon Granulated Sugar (500g), Corn Flakes (500g), Fusilli (500g), Indian Basmati Rice (1Kg), Premium Tea Bags (80) and Pure Smooth Orange Juice (1L).