A decline in the quality of fresh produce. Discuss

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Two Gun Bob

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Aldi don't always get it right, but then again neither do Tesco, Sainsburys or Lidl's. All a consumer can do is have a little nibble, and if it doesn't tastes good then don't buy again. Lots and lots of Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, Asda products please the palate, but a heck of a lot more in these current climes don't meet the basics.

Every corporate man and his dog is cutting corners, trying to fleece the general public in order to maintain margins in a challenging marketplace, by stealthily reducing pack sizes and erring non favorably on the quality of our produce.

I get that truly I do, but when they start pissing around with our fresh produce it really grates the auntie, as we are paying more than we ever did before.

Many years ago we decided to only purchase free range eggs due to the abominable conditions battery hens were housed. Yes they cost a lot more, but everyone who's an eggy knows they also taste a better than a battery laid egg.

So concentrating on fresh produce how many of you are noticing a decline in quality?

We just did a combined Iceland Tuesday shop for their 10% OAP discount, combined with a Tesco Plus 10% off shop, with a quick nip into Aldi's for Tonic water, gin, their Aldi finest black pepper crackers and a few other incidentals that had escaped our immediate attention.

Whilst there we bought a 2kilo pack of chicken breast at £6 the kilo for use in our Coleman Big Night In Chicken Kebabs served up on Deli Kitchen Greek flat breads with crucial garlic mayonnaise.

So we get the gear back home and imagine our consternation when we started cutting up the Aldi chicken breast.

I know that plumping's used via water injection and I know that all birds are not treated equally in terms of animal husbandry, owing to the fast turnaround from egg to kill rate of under a month, but this was taking the proverbial.

From now on we will only use M and S Gold reared which using their Hubbard bird variety that is known for slower growth rates. The M and S chicken is not excessively priced compared to the usual market gear of £6 a kilo and can easily be bought in at £9 the kilo. I had some today for tea and they were beyond the delicious!


Based on our own portion sizes, using 250 g a person, the balance to pocket for an M and S Hubbard bird would only be 75 pence a portion more than mainstreams pumped up, plumped up, fast grown, run of the mill anomaly's.

Small price to pay considering the fibrous, woody, chewy, sinewy, vain riddled monstrosities below that we were sold.

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Look after your birds retailers. Its not that difficult
wgI29Ke.jpg
 
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A friend was a director for a company in the meat industry. His company had factories in Stoke, Hull and Shap
I asked him what the difference was between an M&S chicken and a Kwicksave chicken?
His answer, the packaging

He said that you watch the production line running and chickens of a certain size with no blemishes are packed for M&S, then you get the mid range for Sainsbury/Asda/Tesco, then whatever was left all of various size and blemishes to the discounters
 
Two Gun Bob said:
Aldi don't always get it right, but then again neither do Tesco, Sainsburys or Lidl's. All a consumer can do is have a little nibble, and if it doesn't tastes right then don't buy again. Lots and lots of Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, Asda products please the palate, but a heck of a lot more in these current climes do not meet the basics.

Every corporate man and his dogs cutting corners, trying to fleece the general public, in order to maintain margins in a challenging marketplace by stealthily reducing their pack sizes, and also erring on the quality side of things.

I get that truly I do, but when they start pissing around with our fresh produce it really grates the auntie, as we are still paying the same or even more than we did before.

Many years ago we decided to only purchase free range eggs due to the abominable conditions battery hens were housed. Yes they cost a lot more, but everyone who's an eggy knows they also taste a better than a battery laid egg.

So concentrating on the fresh meats and animal produce how many of you are noticing a decline in quality?

We just did a combined Iceland Tuesday shop for their 10% OAP discount, combined with a Tesco Plus 10% off shop, with a quick nip into Aldi's for Tonic water, gin, their Aldi finest black pepper crackers and a few other incidentals that had escaped our immediate attention.

Whilst there we bought a 2kilo pack of chicken breast at £6 the kilo for use in our Coleman Big Night In Chicken Kebabs served up on Deli Kitchen Greek flat breads with crucial garlic mayonnaise.

So we get the gear back home and imagine our consternation when we started cutting up the Aldi chicken breast.

I know that plumping's used via water injection and I know that all birds are not treated equally in terms of animal husbandry, owing to the fast turnaround from egg to kill rate in under the month, but this was taking the proverbial.

From now on we will only use M and S Gold reared which using their Hubbard bird variety that is known for slower growth rates. The M and S chicken is not excessively priced compared to the usual market gear of £6 a kilo and can easily be bought in at £9 the kilo. I had some today for tea and they were beyond the delicious!


Based on our own portion sizes, using 250 g a person, the balance to pocket for an M and S Hubbard bird would only be 75 pence a portion more than mainstreams pumped up, plumped up, fast grown, run of the mill anomaly's.

Small price to pay considering the fibrous, woody, chewy, sinewy, vain riddled monstrosities below that we were sold.

ATATQuk.jpg


82garnh.jpg


zYk5NG0.jpg


eB61nb3.jpg




Look after your birds retailers. Its not that difficult
wgI29Ke.jpg
Click to expand...
I refuse to buy Aldi meat. You cannot sell it at such a cheap price without filling the chicken with growth hormones, keeping it in shit conditions and then, when dead, filling it full of water.
M&S are dearer but if you want to eat decent meat, a local butcher or M&S is the only way.
Don't forget Tescos sold beef that turned out to be donkey. They'd approached a supplier in Ireland, he contacted Spain who in turn contacted someone else, eventually a Bulgarian (I think) slaughterhouse sent them donkey ..... and Tescos sold it.
They said they didn't know
 
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dickie davies said:
A friend was a director for a company in the meat industry. His company had factories in Stoke, Hull and Shap
I asked him what the difference was between an M&S chicken and a Kwicksave chicken?
His answer, the packaging

He said that you watch the production line running and chickens of a certain size with no blemishes are packed for M&S, then you get the mid range for Sainsbury/Asda/Tesco, then whatever was left all of various size and blemishes to the discounters
Click to expand...
I have heard this argument Dickie many times over on the Reddit, but M and S only use the Hubbard bird in their gold range ? It s a slower growing bird not dissimilar to the Sasso, used for table poultry and said that the better taste comes with slightly firmer meat and intramuscular fat. To get this, you need active birds tha are marginally slower reared. At least another 4 weeks I think for the Hubbard variety?
 
Two Gun Bob said:
I have heard this argument Dickie many times over on the Reddit, but M and S only use the Hubbard bird in their gold range ? It s a slower growing bird not dissimilar to the Sasso, used for table poultry and said that the better taste comes with slightly firmer meat and intramuscular fat. To get this, you need active birds tha are marginally slower reared. At least another 4 weeks I think for the Hubbard variety?
Click to expand...
So M&S have two varieties of chicken, Hubbard and standard!
It would make sense for a company such as M&S to market a quality range and an "everyday"
 
I would never buy Meat from a Supermarket ever -save perhaps Bacon. There’s all sorts of ex Supermarket Employees warning against buying Meat from them on You Tube etc.
 
Potatoes were shite for quite a while recently, turned a corner in the last few weeks mind.
 
dickie davies said:
So M&S have two varieties of chicken, Hubbard and standard!
It would make sense for a company such as M&S to market a quality range and an "everyday"
Click to expand...
They use the Hubbard for the Gold range but they also sell organic and free range etc etc.

“M&S was already leading the way with its Oakham production system,” says Christine Jackson from 2 Sisters Food Group. “But Oakham Gold builds on this and takes it even further. By being the first major retailer to sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment, M&S made the decision to move its whole fresh offering over to a Hubbard slower growing breed and create a production system which centers on animal welfare. Using this slower growing breed, which is fed a multi-grain diet designed to support natural growth and muscle development, has resulted in further improved health and welfare measures"

As a matter of interest 2 sisters food group is the one that supplies almost all of the mainstream supermarkets out there. Two Sisters Food Group is a subsidiary of Boparan Holdings, a privately owned food manufacturing company with head offices in Birmingham that focuses on private label manufacturing for retailer and food service markets.

I am not entirely sure but am led to believe that Tesco now predominantly use Avari instead of the two sisters group.

I know one thing mate and that is we will not be eating that fibrous woody offering above, even if they did let us keep it refunding in full. Big well done BTW for that Aldi and fair to say that the daughters Akita and two Pugs salute your indefatigability! Not an ounce was wasted.
 
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Tuearts right boot said:
Cant honestly say I've seen a decline in quality........ price and size however, now we're talking.
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Fresh veg is pretty abysmal wherever you buy it really and most of it is tasteless. When I was younger a savoy cabbage was the size of your head, so was a cauli. Now they’re the size of a swede. Also, it gets my goat that they cut the leaves off a cabbage before you buy it.
 
I've told the Mrs to stop ordering certain things as they are arriving off from sainsburys. Mushrooms, onions and carrots. All sweaty and rotten. Shite
 
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