Talking Tesco: UK Competition Commission

Why are we publishing these comments?

Tesco has been reading with interest the third party comments on the Groceries Market Investigation that the Competition Commission has been publishing on its website. Our formal submissions have addressed many of the issues raised by these comments, particularly those of some of the professional lobbying organisations. However, a number of submissions on the Competition Commission’s website contain more specific comments about Tesco which we have not covered in our formal submissions.

Some of these specific comments are inaccurate and misleading, and we are providing a series of short notes in order to put the record straight. In the interests of transparency we are today publishing the first such series of notes.

Consumer No.19 Ms HJ Mcdonald

Ms McDonald has raised concerns about us asking our suppliers to only use Tesco approved suppliers to obtain raw material such as spices.

Our number one consideration is the health and safety of our products for customers. We do not railroad suppliers into using “Tesco-approved” suppliers for their raw materials – we use national and industry-approved guidelines to ensure that we discharge our health and safety responsibilities. For example, following the Sudan 1 dye contamination, primary manufacturers who use certain spices must purchase them from suppliers approved by a third party company, Bodycote Lawlabs.