Spanish Ham, Super value

oisind2345

This is the very first time I felt it totally necessary to post a complaint about a supermarkets customer service, I was so over the moon to see an Irish supermarket open in dunlaoghaire, above all times, we now need to support our own, more than ever before. Last week I done a shop in super valu dunlaoghaire, one of the items I purchased was a fillet of ham, after putting it on to cook the following day, I discovered to my shock and horror, that while the label had an irish county side type picture, and stated it was produced in roscommon, it went on to state on the small print: it was from spain, I returned as a regular customer, the following day, and aired my views to a very understanding floor supervisor, she said she would raise the issue with a manager, and was it possible I still had the label, I returned the following day after rooting through my bin for the label, the floor supervisor welcomed my efforts, and introduced me to a store manager, this guy only wanted to explain how they are able to sell cheap fresh meat that they receive from musgraves, maybe because he was not irish himself, he had no understanding of me feeling totally coned as an irish shopper, he said if I looked more carefully the irish ham was beside the spanish hams and was 3 euro dearer .Next time I go to super value, I will bring my best reading glasses to read the fine print, I shall not root through my bin again to try and prove a point to a customer service manager that had no idea of what super valu stands for.

dgsecond

I know that SuperValu is supplied by Musgrave who have their head office in Tramore road Cork. You should try making a complaint to them.

vicwatson

....And exactly what bargain are you looking for ?:rolleyes:

Davy

Moved from bargain alerts

This isnt a supervalu issue, its the same for all sellers. Look for the bord bia logos


http://www.fsai.ie/legislation/food_legislation/labelling_of_food.html
http://www.bordbia.ie/aboutfood/quality/pages/default.aspx

wmpdd3

Remember the pig meat scare a few Decembers ago, All Irish meat had to be removed form sale, most of what was left had pictures of Irish countryside on the labels.

As long as it had some process done in Ireland it can be called Irish.

Cabaal

From my understanding the product you bought is perfectly legal, as outlined above as long as it is processed in Ireland they can label it the way they did.

ejmaztec

oisind2345 wrote: »

This is the very first time I felt it totally necessary to post a complaint about a supermarkets customer service, I was so over the moon to see an Irish supermarket open in dunlaoghaire, above all times, we now need to support our own, more than ever before. Last week I done a shop in super valu dunlaoghaire, one of the items I purchased was a fillet of ham, after putting it on to cook the following day, I discovered to my shock and horror, that while the label had an irish county side type picture, and stated it was produced in roscommon, it went on to state on the small print: it was from spain, I returned as a regular customer, the following day, and aired my views to a very understanding floor supervisor, she said she would raise the issue with a manager, and was it possible I still had the label, I returned the following day after rooting through my bin for the label, the floor supervisor welcomed my efforts, and introduced me to a store manager, this guy only wanted to explain how they are able to sell cheap fresh meat that they receive from musgraves, maybe because he was not irish himself, he had no understanding of me feeling totally coned as an irish shopper, he said if I looked more carefully the irish ham was beside the spanish hams and was 3 euro dearer .Next time I go to super value, I will bring my best reading glasses to read the fine print, I shall not root through my bin again to try and prove a point to a customer service manager that had no idea of what super valu stands for.

What is SuperValu supposed to stand for? As far as I can see, the stores are no different to those of any other supermarket operators i.e. they want to make as much money as they can.

rubadub

ejmaztec wrote: »

What is SuperValu supposed to stand for?

I can't remember exactly but I think their TV ads do infer they support local business etc.

http://supervalu.ie/real-food/awards/food-producer-awards/

Martin Kelleher, Managing Director SuperValu said; “We are extremely proud to be working with Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Independent to recognise the importance of the Irish food business and the top performing companies within this dynamic and innovative sector. The Awards are a reflection of SuperValu’s commitment to local sourcing and we are proud to back Irish businesses and recognise local entrepreneurs.

Ireland’s food and beverage sector is renowned for delivering high quality, excellent produce and is a sector where SuperValu has a real affinity.

Local and Irish produce is something that goes to the heart of Irish culture and where possible SuperValu provides innovative, local Irish companies with both a local and national route to market, providing shoppers with exactly the type of products they want to be able to buy.

As a brand, we support over 30,000 jobs in the Irish food and farming sector. These awards acknowledge the hard work and dedication of these sectors and some of the best companies in this industry,” Kelleher concluded.

oisind2345 wrote: »

I discovered to my shock and horror,

Ah come on now, shock & horror would be finding a dead mouse or finger in the ham!

ejmaztec

rubadub wrote: »

I can't remember exactly but I think their TV ads do infer they support local business etc.

http://supervalu.ie/real-food/awards/food-producer-awards/

I think it's a good marketing ploy on their part, and that of Musgraves, and don't think that SV is any different to Tesco or Dunnes, both of which have some local produce dotted around their stores.

One of the conditions of a SV franchise was that the store had to buy at least 95% of its stock through Musgrave central billing, leaving 5% for local products. The 95% could well have been increased since the last time that I was in the know. They put more emphasis on the 5% than they do on the rest, giving the impression that they support local suppliers a lot more than they actually do.

Most of the 95% bought from Musgrave originates from the same branded goods suppliers that Tesco, Dunnes and all of the other stores use. Basically it's "Same goods, different prices". Perhaps SV should use that instead of "Real food, real people".

dudara

The labelling was perfectly valid. Super Valu can't source all their products and meats exclusively from Ireland.

Cabaal

ejmaztec wrote: »

Most of the 95% bought from Musgrave originates from the same branded goods suppliers that Tesco, Dunnes and all of the other stores use. Basically it's "Same goods, different prices". Perhaps SV should use that instead of "Real food, real people".

You can say the same for every other supermarket also, for example alot of the sausages you see in Lidl, Supervalue, Superquinn, Tesco, Dunnes all come from the one supplier,

"Same product, different branding, different prices".

oisind2345

Thanks for all your comments, indeed after failing to receive any understanding of the legal con from dunlaoghaire supervalu, I raised my concerns by email to head office of musgraves in cork, surprise-surprise they did not reply. the copied quote posted by ejmaztcc says it all "Martin Kelleher, Managing Director SuperValu said; “We are extremely proud to be working with Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Independent to recognise the importance of the Irish food business and the top performing companies within this dynamic and innovative sector. The Awards are a reflection of SuperValu’s commitment to local sourcing and we are proud to back Irish businesses and recognise local entrepreneurs.

Ireland’s food and beverage sector is renowned for delivering high quality, excellent produce and is a sector where SuperValu has a real affinity.

Local and Irish produce is something that goes to the heart of Irish culture and where possible SuperValu provides innovative, local Irish companies with both a local and national route to market, providing shoppers with exactly the type of products they want to be able to buy.

As a brand, we support over 30,000 jobs in the Irish food and farming sector. These awards acknowledge the hard work and dedication of these sectors and some of the best companies in this industry,”

Just because something is legal, does not make it morally right. At least if you buy new Zealand lamb, you clearly know what you are buying (no pictures of connamara to fool you)

galait

The Bord Bia Logo on Irish Meat Products is not worth the paper they are written on !

Galia

Supermarkets no matter what company you shop in tend to want to pull the wool over your eyes make sure to read the labels very carefully.
Buying in a Irish supermarket does not mean anything only awhile ago i read a newspaper article that stated that Aldi stock 50% Irish!
I know what the OP is getting at here but the fact is you have to be careful no matter what supermarket u go into if you want Irish produce.

slimjimmc

galait wrote: »

The Bord Bia Logo on Irish Meat Products is not worth the paper they are written on !

Please enlighten us as to why.

Are you confusing the Bord Bia logo (a state authority) with the Guaranteed Irish logo (a private organisation)?

noodler

Is love Irish food not the one which guaranteed production in Ireland rather than processed in Ireland?

slimjimmc

noodler wrote: »

Is love Irish food not the one which guaranteed production in Ireland rather than processed in Ireland?

It's just one, but it's not the one.

Plek Trum

Sorry to state the obvious - but why not go to your local butcher to buy your meat? Irish reared, Irish run, full traceability plus you are supporting jobs and local trade. Just a thought....

By the way, nothing at all illegal or misleading in what Supervalu are doing. They are simply putting a product on the shelf for sale. Its up to you, the consumer, to make a fully informed decision on what to buy and why. The ham could have come from the moon - once some part of the pricessing (e.g, slicing / packing etc) takes place in Ireland it can be labelled as 'Irish'. This isnt a trick by Supervalu - its EU law!