Supermarkets have not been using high inflation as a cover for raking in bigger profits, according to the boss of the UK's second-largest grocery chain.
Sainsbury's had actually made less money to keep prices down, said CEO Simon Roberts.
Critics have accused food retailers of "greedflation" - putting prices up to bolster profits.
The competition watchdog has said it will look at how the grocery market is operating.
As well as the new focus on high food prices from the Competition and Markets Authority, some politicians have called for action on food prices.
But Mr Roberts told the BBC that Sainsbury's and other grocery chains had spent money to battle inflation and avoid passing all of the rising costs onto consumers.
Smaller profits
"We made less profits year-on-year - and that's because we made really conscious decisions to keep our prices as low as we could," said the CEO.
Sainsbury's reported £690million in pre-tax profits in the year to March, a fall from £730million the previous year.
There have been growing calls for more clarity over how food prices are set.
Inflation has fallen to 8.7%, and energy prices and some wholesale food prices have started to fall back. But food-price inflation remains stubbornly high at 19%.
Ged Futter, a former senior buyer at supermarket Asda and now a retail analyst, said suggestions that supermarkets were "raking in" profits were misplaced, pointing to lower profits across the sector.
Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket chain, earned pre-tax profits of £1billion, half of what they earned the previous year.
Margins
Profit margins in the industry were below 5%, Mr Futter said.
Mr Roberts said pay rises for Sainsbury's staff of more than 10% last year had contributed to rising prices, but he hoped the cost of other inputs such as energy would continue to fall.
While the headline rate of food inflation was around 19%, that didn't mean households were spending 19% more on their food, Mr Roberts added, since most shoppers had decided to buy less, trade down to less expensive choices or shop more frequently to avoid waste.
Shoppers were increasingly turning to own-label products, said the CEO.
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was up 29-points at 7,600 shortly after opening this morning, following yesterday's 56-point loss.
No FTSE 350 companies are due to report today.
Brent crude futures were 0.34% lower at $76 a barrel.