LONDON - Shoppers in Britain are buying "imperfect produce" to help cope with the highest price rises since at least 2008.

Sales of defective fruit and vegetables such as Tesco's Perfectly Imperfect and Morrisons' Naturally Wonky are up 38 per cent over the past month, according to a report from Kantar published Tuesday.

Grocery price inflation has hit 13.9 per cent, the highest level since Kantar started tracking the data in 2008.

British shoppers are already switching to discount supermarkets and buying more store-brand items to try to save pennies. They're cutting back on non-essential spending as costs rise on everything from heating to fuel to food.

Last month, Aldi became Britain's fourth-largest supermarket, overtaking Morrisons. The German discounter held on to its lead this month with a 9.3 per cent market share versus Morrisons' 9 per cent.

Both Aldi and Lidl grew their sales by more than 20 per cent in the past 12 weeks.

"We've seen grocers making a virtue of visually imperfect fruit and vegetables in recent years, allowing them to carry on offering the fresh products consumers want but at a cheaper price," said Mr Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar. "Many shoppers have been converted."

The stark increase in food costs means the average annual shop is set to rise by £643 (S$1,020), at a time when people are already trying to cope with soaring energy bills.

Sales of frozen veg have risen slightly but there hasn't been a big switch away from fresh products, which are still worth 10 times more.

Own-label sales rose by 8.1 per cent over the past month, while sales of branded products dropped by 0.7 per cent.

Consumers are also buying appliances to help them cook using less energy. Sales of slow cookers, air fryers and sandwich makers are up by 53 per cent.

Duvets and electric blankets are up 8 per cent and candles 9 per cent, as shoppers prepare for the possibility of winter blackouts.

Supermarkets are feeling the strain as well.

Last week, Tesco reduced its profit guidance for the full year and said it's in a "tough environment".

That's after rival Morrisons reported a 50 per cent slump in adjusted earnings for the third quarter, and even Aldi has seen pretax profit slide more than 85 per cent from a year earlier. BLOOMBERG