Improve fresh food or lose out, retailers told

SHOPKEEPERS were last night urged to improve the quality of the fresh produce in their stores if they want to win new business.

Yesterday, 10 supermarkets and stores across Ireland were given industry accolades for the quality of their fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, bread and hot food.

One of the competition judges, Donald Helme, of advertising company GreyHelme, said: “Good progress is being made but any retailer who isn’t working hard on fresh foods had better do so — and soon. The standard of competition is rising, real innovation is happening and now the thinking must be: ‘Look at how I can improve or I’ll be left behind’.”

Judges in the Checkout magazine awards evaluated the freshness of the food, the range of goods, the appearance of displays, quality of service and information on the origin of items.

Superquinn in Lucan, Dublin, took the award for best large supermarket. The award for best specialist store went to Galway’s Connemara Fine Foods while best fruit and vegetables were at Fallon and Byrne in the Dublin city centre.

SuperValu in Midleton, Co Cork, had the best bakery, while fish was freshest at Scally’s SuperValu in Clonakilty. The best meat was at Superquinn in Waterford.