UK consumers are dissatisfied with the quality of fresh produce sold by some supermarkets online, a study has found.
A poll by which.co.uk found that only one in five of those questioned thought Sainsbury’s and Tesco had a “very good” standard of fruit and vegetable quality.
Asda and Sainsbury’s were the lowest rated in terms of overall customer satisfaction, with 24 and 30 per cent satisfaction ratings respectively.
Waitrose was named most popular online supermarket among consumers, after 69 per cent of respondents said they were very satisfied with the service offered by the chain.
The main issues for online supermarket shoppers were food quality and the substitution of out-of-stock items, with vegetables a particular problem.
Malcolm Coles, editor of which.co.uk, said: “It’s no surprise that Waitrose and Ocado have emerged as clear favourites in the battle of the online supermarkets - shopping online is all about convenience, and our survey shows that people don’t mind paying a bit extra if they know they’ll get good quality products and service in return.”
A spokesman for Asda said the survey results were disappointing. “This was a small sample of Which? readers and hardly a representative sample of Asda customers,” he said. “But the results are disappointing. We’re very proud of the measures we’ve taken to improve produce quality, for example new inspectors in every depot. And as we roll home- shopping out to the rest of the UK this year we hope customers will see the difference.” l
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