Tesco has put security tags on four-pint cartons of milk to deter thieves that are targeting dairy products, as price inflation surges amid the cost-of-living crisis.
In an image captured by CornwallLive, the majority of milk cartons in the Tesco Extra store in the village of Pool, Cornwall, had individual plastic security tags attached to them.
It is thought that this is the first-time plastic containers of milk have been tagged, as the price of dairy products soared over the past year.
Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning
A customer at the Tesco Extra store in Cornwall, said: “I couldn’t believe it at first and thought it was some kind of joke or a mistake, but I overheard a member of staff tell a customer that there had been a lot of thefts of milk, and this was their way of trying to stop it.”
However, Tesco denied this was the reason for the tagging, telling CornwallLive it was down to “human error,” the UK’s leading supermarket said.
As prices of daily essentials have been on the rise, the average price for a pint of milk was 46p in January this year but has since risen 41% to 65p as of October, according to the Office for National Statistics.
In July, shoppers took to social media to share pictures of security tags on £3.99 blocks of Aldi cheddar and £8 Co-op lamb chops.
At that same time, each of the Big 4 grocers increased milk prices by 10% as other dairy products including butter and cheese also saw staggering price rises.
Earlier this month, Tesco had to start using security barriers to protect workers from customers waiting to snatch reduced yellow sticker items out of their hands while they stock shelves.
Photos showed workers barricaded behind yellow barriers with ‘do not enter’ signs while tagging items with reduced prices.
