The percentage of beef products on retail shelves displaying a Bord Bia quality mark dropped from 95% in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 85% in the first quarter this year. The total number of beef products on the shelves also fell.

While there were more pork products on retail shelves in the first quarter of 2017, the proportion of them with a QA mark fell from 88% in Q4 2016 to 83% this year.

The chicken category decreased from 77% to 73% between the two quarters.

Lamb also saw a lower proportion of QA marks displayed on products with a fall of just one percentage point.

Bacon products and rashers had no change, staying at 84% and 87% respectively. The only notable increase was in burgers, which increased by five percentage points to 71%.

The retailers

Taking a look at the individual retailer side in the survey, some of the larger chain stores performed worst. Tesco and Lidl both had a 4% lower proportion of facings (individual products on the shelf), standing at 74% and 77% in Q1 respectively. SuperValu also reduced from 69% down to 66% in Q1.

Aldi and Dunnes Stores both improved their percentage of facings with a QA mark. And the convenience stores Centra, Mace and Spar also improved in the first quarter, despite having a much lower number of facings available on their shelves.

Bord Bia visits around 18 retailers each quarter, employing independent auditors to do an in-store assessment of the proportion of prepacked fresh meat carrying the QA mark. Each product is assessed based on the percentage of “facings” (individual products on shelf) with the Bord Bia Quality Mark.