The company also said that it "worked hard" with its suppliers "to protect customers from inflationary pressures and to keep prices as low as possible".
Tesco plc (TSCO.L, TSCDY.PK) reported Friday that its first-quarter sales grew 3.6% including a 2.9% positive foreign exchange translation effect.
Same store sales for the retailer's core United Kingdom unit grew by 2.3%, versus 0.3% growth achieved a year ago.
The news pushed the supermarket's shares up by 3%, making it the biggest riser in the FTSE 100 index.
Mr Lewis added: "This is a good start to the year, with our sixth consecutive quarter of positive like-for-like sales growth across the Group".
In the United Kingdom, fresh food volumes grew by 1.6 per cent in the quarter after the grocer reduced prices on a range of fruit and vegetables and more than 200 other healthy products.
Customer transactions saw like-for-like growth of 1.3 per cent, representing around 10 million more customers than a year prior.
Ireland's First Openly Gay Prime Minister Seeks Abortion Expansion
Varadkar born in Dublin in 1979, is the son of an Irish Catholic nurse from County Waterford and a Hindu doctor from Mumbai. Addressing the Dáil (Irish parliament) after his election, he said: "I've been elected to lead, but I promise to serve".
He said customers had responded to the focus on price by doing more of their shopping with Tesco with sales volumes growing particularly strongly in fresh food.
British retail sales fell more sharply than expected in May, official data showed on Thursday, while data earlier this week showed British workers' earnings after inflation shrinking at the fastest pace since 2014.
The outcome was ahead of analysts' forecasts, in a range of up 1.7-2.0 percent, and built on growth of 0.7 percent in the previous quarter.
"Food, and fresh food in particular, is firing on all cylinders, and that's a huge shot across the bows for its competitors", John Ibbotson, an analyst at industry researcher Retail Vision, said by e-mail.
"We've done a good job in hard conditions", chief executive officer Dave Lewis said on a conference call.
Tesco asks suppliers to keep prices low amid rising inflation. Investor concerns over Tesco's prospects have been building amid a resurgence in growth at discounters Aldi and Lidl and opposition to its proposed acquisition of wholesaler Booker Group Plc.
"What's particularly encouraging is that Dave Lewis is acutely aware of this and knows that nothing can be taken for granted".
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