Supermarket snack habit is actually illegal and could get you a nasty fine

We all know that doing the food shop when hungry is a huge mistake, as you’ll be tempted to buy so much more than you went in for.

What’s more, you might also be tempted to start snacking on items from your trolley as you walk up and down the aisles – tucking into a packet of crisps, or taking a cheeky bite of a chocolate bar.

This is a pretty common habit seen in supermarkets, with adults curbing their cravings and parents giving children treats to keep them occupied while they tick things off the shopping list.

But it turns out that if you’ve been doing this, you’re technically breaking the law.

This is because the act is considered illegal under section six of the Theft Act 1968, which concerns the ‘intention of permanently depriving the other of it’.

Section six states: ‘A person appropriating property belonging to another without meaning the other permanently to lose the thing itself is nevertheless to be regarded as having the intention of permanently depriving the other of it if his intention is to treat the thing as his own to dispose of regardless of the other’s rights; and a borrowing or lending of it may amount to so treating it if, but only if, the borrowing or lending is for a period and in circumstances making it equivalent to an outright taking or disposal.’

It continues to say: ‘Without prejudice to the generality of subsection above, where a person, having possession or control (lawfully or not) of property belonging to another, parts with the property under a condition as to its return which he may not be able to perform, this (if done for purposes of his own and without the other’s authority) amounts to treating the property as his own to dispose of regardless of the other’s rights.’

So even though you might have the good intention of paying for the item you’ve eaten, as you hadn’t paid for it in advance, you took it while it belonged to the supermarket.

Ownership of the item isn’t transferred to you until you’ve paid for it at the till, so you have stolen it.

Criminal Law expert Rachel Adamson told the Liverpool Echo: ‘Only when that sale is complete do you have the legal right to consume or use it.

‘If you eat the chocolate before you legally own it, you are permanently depriving the owner of his right to the product – he can no longer refuse you the sale or take the item off the shelves.’

It will often be at the supermarket’s discretion whether or not they consider this habit an offence, and it may also depend on what you were consuming.

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For instance, if you were eating an item that you have to weigh at the till, such as a bag of fruit, and the weight when you pay is less than it should have been because you ate some of it, you can see how this would be an issue.

For those who are considered to have committed an offence under the Theft Act, the offence is triable, with a maximum penalty in the Crown Court of seven years imprisonment, and/or an unlimited fine, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

So you might want to think twice before opening that Dairy Milk or can of Coca-Cola before you get to the checkout…

A version of this article was first published in January 2024.

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