Certain Meats In U.K. Carry Electronic Alarm, Aside From High Price Tag

London, England (AHN) - With a record-breaking zero percent second quarter economic growth rate hitting the United Kingdom, Britons have little choice except to further tighten their belts.

As food prices continue to soar, expensive meat had become a prime target for shoplifters, prompting British supermarkets to attach security tags on steaks, joints, chicken and other premium-price meats.

Tesco and Sainsburys now have electronic tags on its meats, which would trigger an alarm at supermarket exits if bought out unpaid. The tags were traditionally used on high-value items such as wines and electronic items that are easy to pilfer.

Tesco sells sirloin steak at $28.23 (15.47 pound) a kilogram, while Sainsburys vends fresh lamb at $14.60 (8 pound) a kilo.

A Tesco spokesman explained to the U.K. Telegraph, "Stores that have experienced high levels of theft have decided to tag high-value items like meat. The levels of stolen meat in those stores had come down because tagging is a good deterrent. We are not the only retailer to do it."

Meanwhile, Premier Foods announced Thursday it will hike the price tags of its products to cover the increasing cost of commodities. Premier is known for grocery brands such as Hovis and Oxo.

The food firm has implemented price increase even during the early part of the year, resulting to a 4 percent hike on its first half pre-tax profit to $109.5 million (60 million pound).