This is a subscriber-only article
SuperValu has confirmed that an Irish rib roast it sold with a label stating the country of origin as Azerbaijan was a mistake and has been corrected.
Shoppers were confused by the label because while it said the cut had been slaughtered and cut in Ireland, the country of origin was listed as the former satellite Soviet state of Azerbaijan. While Irish soccer fans might be familiar with the capital, Baku, Irish shoppers were not.
A spokesperson for SuperValu said the mistake only occurred in one store on an extremely limited number of packets, which had already been amended on Sunday morning to display the correct label.
They stressed that 100% of all SuperValu branded beef is Irish and Bord Bia approved. They also explained that the reason why a Bord Bia label was not on the packaging was because "Bord Bia does not allow the use of their Bord Bia approved logo on Irish meat wrapped in-store at the butcher counter."
The spokesperson continued: "When we wrap our Irish Beef fresh at our butcher counters, it is labelled “Produced in Ireland”."
"Our prepack SuperValu branded beef is labelled Bord Bia approved in accordance with the Bord Bia logo usage policy."
The confirmation comes on the back of calls by IFA president Tim Cullinan for clarity over the label situation.
SHARING OPTIONS: