Aldi chief executive Giles Hurley has flagged BBC Panorama’s supermarket price match investigation to its shoppers, claiming the documentary “revealed some eye-opening findings”.

In an email to Aldi customers yesterday (26 September), Hurley said: “The programme, which aired on BBC One, highlighted that nearly a third of Tesco’s matched products contain less of the main ingredient compared to Aldi’s.

“This really reinforces what we’ve always believed: Aldi is the only supermarket where you can count on both top-quality products and low prices.”

According to BBC Panorama, of 122 Tesco products analysed in August, 38 had at least five percentage points less of the main ingredient than the discounter’s products they had been price matched to.

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Examples of this included chicken nuggets, where Tesco’s product contained 39% chicken, while Aldi’s contained 60%, and chilli con carne where the discount grocer’s contained 27% beef, compared with 15% at Tesco.

The email continued: “We’re aware that other retailers might claim to match our prices, but as this research shows, these claims are not always what they appear to be. We welcome the investigation by Panorama, as it supports what we passionately believe: at Aldi, you don’t have to compromise on quality to get great value.”

Tesco told the BBC that it constantly reviews the quality of its products and has processes to make sure its Aldi price matched products are comparable to the discount grocer’s products.

It said that a product with a higher proportion of any one ingredient does not necessarily mean that it is of better quality, and added that all of its products include ingredient information so that customers can make informed decisions.