I checked out if its cheaper to buy loose or packaged fruit - and the findings could leave a sour taste

Shoppers could be confused into spending more than necessary in the supermarkets thanks to lack of clarity around pricing.

Analysis by The Times of hundreds of price tags at major supermarkets found the lack of clarity is making it harder for shoppers to find the best deals and that while shoppers might assume it would be cheaper to buy fresh produce loose, this is not always correct because of variations between products and stores.

The Times found cases where buying in bulk is a false economy, with smaller pack sizes costing less per unit than bigger or family packs.

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In order to do my own research I went to three different major supermarkets - Morrisons, Tesco and Asda to check out their fruit aisles and see if buying loose fruit really was adding up to a higher price tag than buying packaged.

In Morrisons in Whitefield a box of loose oranges was embazoned with Price Hold and individually were priced at 29p. In the adjoining box a bumper pack of five is £1.25 so therefore cheaper than buying five loose ones, which would come to £1.45. The pack oranges also look bigger and juicier.

Lemons were priced at 29p each but a bag of four wonky ones were only 59p - making it much cheaper so long as you are not a stickler for symmetry - otherwise four loose lemons would be a much costlier £1.16 - bound to leave a sour taste in your mouth. Similarly, a six pack of Royal Gala apples was £1.79 - but the same apples were priced at 39p each - meaning buying six loose would cost a much more pricely £2.34, a whole 55p more - all a bit rotten.

Elsewhere pack apples range in price according to product - six Granny Smiths in a pack are priced at £1.79, whereas only four pink lady apples are 20p more expensive at £1.99.