Tesco has spoken to freshinfo to refute claims that it has been misleading shoppers in its half-price Fruit & Veg Pledge.
“We utterly reject any suggestion that our massively popular Fruit & Veg Pledge is anything other than an honest promotion designed to give our customers even better value as they shop for their five-a-day,” a spokesman told freshinfo. “Much of the data circulated in the media is factually incorrect - the price of fruit and vegetables does fluctuate due to seasonal and other factors, but Tesco always offers great value to its customers on fresh produce and across the board.”
Trading standards officers are said to be investigating the UK’s leading supermarket, which is accused of confusing shoppers over the half-price promotion, after research by a Sunday newspaper revealed the retailer had increased prices in the period before starting the campaign.
Tesco made its pledge to halve the price of five different fruits and vegetables every week for the whole of 2007 - to push consumers along the track to eating 5 A DAY.
But research The Mail on Sunday suggested that prices on items featured in the promotion rose abruptly just days before the start of the offer, making the promotional offer in fact half the higher price.
According to the research, four of the products featured in the first week of the promotion in January suffered a sudden price hike at the end of December - immediately prior to the 50-per-cent-cut.
Tesco believes the storm stirred up around its pledge campaign is “the result of a cynical briefing”.
