Families can save over £650 a year on groceries bills with ‘simple’ change

Britons can reduce their supermarket bills by over £650 a year by switching to canned food.

Families can save by switching to cheaper canned alternatives for a range of common food items, including fruit and vegetables, as well as beef and fish.

Jeremy Gibson, from Love Canned Food, said: “Making simple switches is often the easiest way to save money at the tills.

“Canned food offers a brilliant alternative to traditional fresh and frozen produce, both in terms of basket cost and energy, but also wastage.”

Researchers from the group found families switching to canned food can save up to £73.08 a month, which adds up to more than £650 a year.

Canned peas are almost £1 cheaper than the fresh version and 2p cheaper than frozen, while canned sweetcorn is 56p cheaper than fresh.

Big savings are on offer on tinned meat and fish items, with canned stewing steaks offering a savings of just over £27 a year.

A can of tuna is £2.10 cheaper than its fresh 100g alternative, including cooking costs, meaning shoppers can reduce their bills by £25 over the course of a year.

Mr Gibson said: “Heading to the canned aisle rather than the fridges and freezers costs no time in the supermarket but could make a huge impact on monthly bills.”

Another advantage of canned items versus frozen food is families will save on their energy bills, as tinned produce is quicker to cook and does not take up freezer space.

Cooking food from a can costs 1p with an electric hob or microwave compared to 10p for frozen food and 13p for fresh items.

Using canned salmon for a family meal of Salmon and Pea Quiche can reduce costs by £6.52 compared to fresh ingredients, while saving £5.52 compared to using frozen items.

Other major savings from canned food include the fact they have a much longer shelf life, up to five years.

An average household throws away £728 a year in food waste, according to research from waste advocacy group WRAP, so switching to tinned food could help a household hugely reduce this wastage.

Dr Simon Welham, a nutrition professor at University of Nottingham, said: “If canned produce can be offered at prices which fit with the extremely limited food budgets that many currently are experiencing, then this may allow broader achievement of dietary requirements.

“The greatly increased lifespan of foods is clearly an advantage, and it will be important to rigorously assess the effectiveness of adopting a more “can based” shopping basket on improvement of nutrient intakes.”

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