What's goin on with chicken quality?

[Turn7]

AvonRise said:

Turn7 said:

Only buy from a Butcher,not a supermarket.

Cheap chicken is awfull and wasting money .

Lots of high street butchers buy the stuff that fails supermarket QC, so tread carefully, or you'll spend more money on an inferior product.

You can tell a good butcher by looking at his product and talking to him - but I do hear your point.

Im very fussy with meat and wont buy shyte. Ive not bought supermarket meat for more than 20 years.

[Wills2]

I was thinking this myself the other week, the last lot has been OK though.

[Glenred]

Sainsburys chicken is terrible recently, really tough and chewy.

You need to trawl through the packs to find any decent chicken breasts in my local Sainsburys, I went to morrisons today instead for my chicken.

[loafer123]

In Maine in the summer I bouggt chicken which was virtually tasteless, tough and grey, but the quality of food over there is generally to a price not a quality.

Back here, the farm butcher in my town means the local supermarket has to sell good quality meat.

[Cheib]

I don't buy chicken from the major supermarkets.....really don't find it has any taste at all. In fact I don't think any meat bought from Tesco/Sainsbury's etc is worth buying....it might be cheap but it is for a reason.

We've got a new local butcher who sells French Black Leg chicken which he brings in weekly....it's not cheap (£20 a bird) but it's absolutely delicious....off le charts.

[mattdaniels]

prand said:

Has anyone noticed chicken breast that is very fibrous and tough recently?

i've found several batches over the last year or so are tough, rubbery and with visibly thick muscle fibres. Not very tasty at all, and it's getting to the point I don't want to eat chicken any more.

I expect this is a result of chickens that have been reared from egg to slaughterhouse 20 days or so, resulting in high meat yield but is frankly inedible. Worst case is this is some kind of cheaper chicken substitute (seagull, ostrich?!) that's being put into the food chain.

I din't buy the most expensive hand reared organic chicken, i've had this from various shops and outlets.

I have not complained to the shops yet, but will do so next time this happens. It would be interestin to hear if others have noticed this too.

Spookily I've just had my first experience of this. Tesco organic british chicken drumsticks and thighs. The meat was rubbery and tough, almost inedible.

[DoubleSix]

Cheib said:

I don't buy chicken from the major supermarkets.....really don't find it has any taste at all. In fact I don't think any meat bought from Tesco/Sainsbury's etc is worth buying....it might be cheap but it is for a reason.

We've got a new local butcher who sells French Black Leg chicken which he brings in weekly....it's not cheap (£20 a bird) but it's absolutely delicious....off le charts.

[Adz The Rat]

LordGrover said:

Twas ever thus. For that reason I stopped buying Sainsbury's chicken breasts a few years ago.
Surprisingly to me, an online supplier does better quality, so long as I go for the larger size 8-9oz breasts: MuscleFood.com.
The best I get is from a local farm shop; SevernViewFarm but they're a bit hit and miss - sometimes they have plenty of stock, another they have next to nowt and a trip wasted.

I get my chicken from Musclefood, never been disappointed with it.