Coronavirus: what you can still buy at the supermarket

Weeks of panic-buying have seen shortages of toilet paper, pasta and rice at supermarkets across Australia. But there is food available - if you know where to look.

Panic-buying had yet to reach canned tuna, cheese and cereal at Coles in Sydney’s Broadway Shopping Centre.

Amid panic buying at supermarkets, stores remain stocked with most varieties of fresh fruit, vegetables and frozen goods.

Supermarket staff are struggling to restock shelves as shoppers strip bare aisles of pantry items and dried goods. But the federal government has assured the public that Australia does not have a supply issue, despite restocking problems.

Industry Minister Karen Andrews urged people to return to their normal shopping routine following weeks of panic-buying across the country.

“The issue that we are experiencing at the moment is getting the goods out of our distribution centres and on to the shelves,” she said on Tuesday.

“The more panic buying that continues, the more difficult that is, which means that people will walk into stores and they will see shelves that are not fully stocked. This is only a restocking issue. It is not a supply issue.”

Weeks of bulk buying have seen shortages of toilet paper, pasta, rice and tinned goods at supermarkets across Australia.

Despite shortages, at Coles Broadway store in Sydney, shoppers had access to the a well stocked fruit and vegetable section, deli and bakery on Tuesday afternoon.

While single lemons had been stripped from the store’s shelves, a few aisles away the store had an abundance of bottled lemon juice.

Bottled lemon juice at Coles Broadway, Sydney. Picture: Supplied

The bakery aisle at Coles Broadway in Sydney.

Panic-buying had yet to reach the canned tuna aisle, with rows of brand variety, including Wild Tides and John West.

The store’s freezers were also close to full with frozen meals, including dumplings, dim sims, fish fillets and chicken breasts.

While the meat aisles had a visible shortage of sausages, the store’s vegetarian meat alternatives were in plentiful stock.

The cereal aisle also had a wide variety, from Kellogg’s to Uncle Toby’s, despite boxes of Weetbix cleared from shelves.

On Tuesday morning, Woolworths faced criticism after customers were unable to purchase items like toilet paper during its first dedicated shopping hour for elderly and disabled shoppers.

Managing director Claire Peters said the supermarket chain was working to restock products to the shelves.

“It’s day one of our dedicated shopping hour and we know it wasn’t perfect across all of our stores,” she said.

Woolworths said it would shut all national stores at 8pm on Wednesday evening to allow staff to replenish store shelves.

Supermarket giant Coles will launch a restricted shopping hour for disadvantaged customers from Wednesday. It has also flagged a casual recruitment drive to respond to the surge in demand.