Mystery Shops: December 2020LMC

• The primary objective of this on-going study is to understand the origin of relevant beef and lamb products stocked across a

variety of stores in Northern Ireland.

• On a monthly basis, a Cognisense Ltd. mystery shopper visits 10 separate stores in order to record the following

information:

• Presence of the Northern Ireland Farm Quality Assured label or other (specified by LMC) quality assurance logos

• Origin of product (NI, Britain, Ireland, EU, Australia or New Zealand)

• Each store is visited twice per month, allowing for a weekday and weekend mystery shop.

• The stores visited within the sample are Tesco, Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Lidl, SuperValu, Marks & Spencer, Eurospar, Co-Op

and Iceland – the location of the stores visited changes each month.

• All fieldwork is conducted in accordance with the Market Research Society Code of Conduct.

• This report details results from January 2020 – December 2020. (Please note: the mystery shopping programme was

suspended from April – September 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.)

Methodology and Sample

2

Mystery Shops: BeefLMC

4

100%

18%

79%

81%

100%

14%

84%

86%

100%

18%

79%

82%

100%

9%

90%

91%

100%

5%

92%

95%

100%

9%

83%

91%

Total British

QA British

FQAS

NI

Jan '20 Feb '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

5

100%

87%

100%

90%

100%

94%

100%

87%

100%

1%

88%

Total British

QA British

NI

Jan '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

Please note: Sainsbury’s did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for February 2020

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj0pfqb7NDbAhXKKsAKHaPFDlEQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https://www.sainsburysbusinessdirect.co.uk/assets.html&psig=AOvVaw0cuiNESgeNfNYfIX7qnFUq&ust=1528986366031740

6

1%

99%

15%

72%

77%

100%

13%

71%

76%

1%

99%

24%

61%

72%

1%

99%

11%

76%

76%

1%

99%

12%

77%

77%

100%

14%

64%

72%

Irish

QA Irish

Total British

QA British

FQAS

NI

Jan '20 Feb '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

7

3%

97%

18%

75%

80%

2%

98%

21%

73%

77%

3%

97%

22%

72%

75%

8%

92%

10%

78%

82%

4%

96%

15%

78%

81%

2%

98%

19%

75%

78%

QA Irish

Total British

QA British

FQAS

NI

Jan '20 Feb '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=imgres&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjY5pf3vsbRAhXBlxoKHRagCx8QjRwIBw&url=https://plus.google.com/u/0/100519921380812723942&psig=AFQjCNEeWQjykLmIRWDXcW1nMb6_htZz8w&ust=1484650145883532

8

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

Total British

NI

Jan '20 Feb '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

Other Stores

9

Month Findings

January 2020 Did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for this month.

February 2020 Did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for this month.

March 2020 All relevant products were of British origin and displayed quality labelling.

October 2020 Did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for this month.

November 2020 Ninety-four percent of the relevant products were of British origin and displayed quality labelling, with the

remainder being from Northern Ireland and displaying no quality labelling.

December 2020 Did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for this month.

Month Findings

January 2020 All of the relevant beef products were from Northern Ireland, but none displayed NIFQAS labelling.

February 2020 Half of the relevant beef products were of British origin, with none displaying NIFQAS labelling; the other

half of the relevant products were from Ireland and displayed a quality logo.

March 2020 Did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for this month.

October 2020 All of the relevant beef products were from Northern Ireland, but none displayed NIFQAS labelling.

November 2020 Did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for this month.

December 2020 Fifty-eight percent of the relevant beef products were from Britain and the remaining 42% were of Irish

origin – none displayed quality assurance labelling.

Other Stores Contd.

10

Month Findings

January 2020 All of the relevant beef products were of British origin, with 12% displaying NIFQAS labelling.

February 2020 All of the relevant beef products were of British origin, with 47% displaying NIFQAS labelling.

March 2020 All of the relevant beef products were of British origin, with none displaying quality assurance labelling.

October 2020 All of the relevant beef products were of Irish origin, with none displaying quality assurance labelling.

November 2020. Did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for this month.

December 2020. Eighty-eight percent of the relevant beef products were from Britain and the remaining 12% were of Irish

origin – none displayed quality assurance labelling.

Month Findings

January 2020 All of the relevant beef products were of British origin, with none displaying quality assurance labelling.

February 2020 All of the relevant beef products were of British origin, with none displaying quality assurance labelling.

March 2020 All of the relevant beef products were of British origin, with none displaying quality assurance labelling.

October 2020 Eighty-one percent of the relevant beef products were of British origin, whilst 19% were from Ireland – none

of the products displayed quality assurance labelling.

November 2020 Did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for this month.

December 2020 Seventy-six percent of the relevant beef products were from Britain and the remaining 24% were of Irish

origin – none displayed quality assurance labelling.

Mystery Shops: LambLMC

12

19%

81%

15%

65%

65%

1%

99%

31%

68%

68%

100%

21%

79%

79%

100%

43%

57%

57%

100%

10%

90%

90%

100%

19%

81%

81%

New Zealand

Total British

QA British

FQAS

NI

Jan '20 Feb '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

13

100%

100%

100%

17%

75%

100%

89%

19%

81%

78%

100%

96%

New Zealand

Total British

QA British

NI

Jan '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

Please note: Sainsbury’s did not feature in the mystery shopping programme for February 2020

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj0pfqb7NDbAhXKKsAKHaPFDlEQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https://www.sainsburysbusinessdirect.co.uk/assets.html&psig=AOvVaw0cuiNESgeNfNYfIX7qnFUq&ust=1528986366031740

14

6%

94%

25%

69%

69%

19%

81%

33%

48%

48%

2%

12%

87%

12%

75%

75%

29%

71%

8%

46%

46%

28%

72%

17%

55%

55%

44%

56%

18%

26%

26%

Australian

New Zealand

Total British

QA British

FQAS

NI

Jan '20 Feb '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

15

23%

77%

77%

10%

90%

90%

9%

91%

91%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

QA Irish

Total British

NI

Jan '20 Feb '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=imgres&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjY5pf3vsbRAhXBlxoKHRagCx8QjRwIBw&url=https://plus.google.com/u/0/100519921380812723942&psig=AFQjCNEeWQjykLmIRWDXcW1nMb6_htZz8w&ust=1484650145883532

16

17%

83%

100%

8%

92%

100%

39%

61%

100%

Irish

Total British

Jan '20 Feb '20 Mar '20 Oct '20 Nov '20 Dec '20

Other Stores

17

Month Findings

January 2020 Did not feature in this month’s mystery shopping programme.

February 2020 Did not feature in this month’s mystery shopping programme.

March 2020 All of the relevant lamb products were of British origin and displayed quality assurance logos.

October 2020 Did not feature in this month’s mystery shopping programme.

November 2020 All of the relevant lamb products were of British origin and displayed quality assurance logos.

December 2020 Did not feature in this month’s mystery shopping programme.

Month Findings

January 2020 No relevant lamb products in the stores visited.

February 2020 All of the relevant lamb products were from Northern Ireland, but none displayed quality assurance labelling.

March 2020 Did not feature in this month’s mystery shopping programme.

October 2020 All of the relevant lamb products were from Northern Ireland, but none displayed quality assurance labelling.

November 2020 Did not feature in this month’s mystery shopping programme.

December 2020 No relevant lamb products in the stores visited.

Other Stores Contd.

18

Month Findings

January 2020 No relevant lamb products in the stores visited.

February 2020 All of the lamb products were of British origin, but none displayed quality assurance labelling.

March 2020 No relevant lamb products in the stores visited.

October 2020 No relevant lamb products in the stores visited.

November 2020 Did not feature in this month’s mystery shopping programme.

December 2020 No relevant lamb products in the stores visited.

Month Findings

January 2020 No relevant lamb products in the stores visited.

February 2020 No relevant lamb products in the stores visited.

March 2020 No relevant lamb products in the stores visited.

October 2020 Seventeen percent of the relevant lamb products were of British origin (no quality assurance labelling),

whilst 83% were from New Zealand.

November 2020 Did not feature in this month’s mystery shopping programme.

December 2020 All of the relevant lamb products were from New Zealand.