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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Sophie Donovan & Abigail O'Leary

Coronavirus: Least popular food items abandoned on supermarket shelves

The least popular foods abandoned on shelves by panic buyers include expensive brands of pasta sauce and low fat chips.

While shoppers scrambled for pasta, tinned food and toilet rolls - panic buyers were less taken with Loyd Grossman's pasta sauce along with novelty soaps - such as gin and tonic scented handwash.

Branded versions of ready-cooked rice have also been left lining the aisles, with shoppers not willing to pay the surplus 40p for Uncle Ben’s.

Non-dairy milks, such as oat and almond is still standing, while both long life and fresh milk are long gone.

Precooked meats have been cleared out of some shops while fresh soups and scotch broth are set to rot on the shelves.

Baked beans aren't available, but their low-sugar alternative have been left for the latecomers.

Branded rice is also being left on the shelves (Tom Maddick SWNS)

And clearly everyone’s eating peanut butter for breakfast in Bristol, while honey appears to be sticking around.

The Gin and Tonic craze clearly doesn’t extend into favoured hand wash as £3 seemed a little too much for those wanting to kill 99.9 bacteria.

On Twitter, shoppers have noticed the stingy extent of panic buying.

Attached to a photo of expensive soaps left on the shelf, @Nigelandthe said: “Meanwhile in Bristol, we’re obviously very concerned about coronavirus, but only up to the value of £2.99 and not a penny more.”

In Sainsbury’s, shopper @MrsSpalding said: “Even when there’s no veg left no one wants you, sprouts #panicbuying.”

Panic buyers were not interested in low fat chips (SWNS)
Dairy free milks are still well stocked (Tom Maddick SWNS)

Major supermarkets including Sainsbury's, Tesco, Aldi and Morrisons have rationed how much of certain products customers can buy.

Some have restricted purchases in-demand items like toilet roll, paracetemol and pasta, while others have brought in blanket bans on multiple purchases.

It's just one of a number of measures brought in by the nation's grocers, as pictures of empty shelves spread through social media like wildfire.

Panic buyers have stripped shelves of everything they can - in some cases leaving just ice cream and chocolate Easter eggs - while huge queues snaked around some supermarkets ahead of opening on Wednesday.

Currently there are no official limits coming down from the Government, although pressure is growing to impose them, and supermarket bosses insist there is no shortage - simply people over-buying.

Tesco has introduced a five-item limit on items including pasta, baked beans, anti-bacterial wipes, gels and sprays, and long-life milk until further notice.

It also cut opening hours at all its 24-hour stores saying it would be open from 6am and 10pm

Customers will be able to buy a maximum of three of any grocery product.

Those limits shrink to a maximum of two of each of its most popular items including toilet paper, soap, and UHT (long-lasting) milk.

Aldi has restricted all items in its store to four units a person and Asda has announced it is restricting all customers to buying up to three items on all food, toiletries and cleaning products.

Hand sanitiser had already been restricted to two per person both in-store and online.

Waitrose currently has online-only restrictions on certain anti-bacterial soaps and wipes - which have been capped at four per person

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