Supermarket Chicken ?
Discussion
ambuletz said:
to be honest, i don't have a problem with supermarket meat
Then why on earth are you posting in a thread about poor quality supermarket meat? 
I'd recommend getting yourself on a butchery course with someone like Ginger Pig, where they will teach you in detail how to butcher and cook each animal.
My objection to "cheap" meat, on top of all the other quality/welfare issues, is the fact that the water that I cook out of it is, I believe, up to 1/3 of the original weight.
Is this not theft, fiddling the scales, artificially adding weight etc?
Funnily enough, people balk at meat costing more than the supermarket and yet a "proper" butcher is charging for actual meat, not added water, so the real price differential is much less.
Is this not theft, fiddling the scales, artificially adding weight etc?
Funnily enough, people balk at meat costing more than the supermarket and yet a "proper" butcher is charging for actual meat, not added water, so the real price differential is much less.
Lemming Train said:
The vast majority of one-man band butcher's meat comes from a wholesaler like Weddel Swift. I used to work for them. Always used to make me chuckle watching the old dears in the Leeds meat market comparing quality from one place to the next, completely oblivious to the fact that we supplied about half of the businesses there with the exact same products all from the same place 
. Most of these "farm shops" are supplied from a wholesaler as well but people still think the meat comes from the adjacent farmer's field and what they're buying was happily chewing the grass and roaming around in the field the day before.
Speaking of supermarkets, beware of any meat branded as coming from 'x farms', eg. Tesco Woodside Farms (pork), Willow Farms (chicken) and Boswell Farms (beef). All the names are made up. It's imported crap that is pumped full of water and colourings and you wouldn't even feed it to your dog. The other supermarkets all have their own ficticious 'farm' names as well, including the German supermarkets and it's all the lowest grade meat that they can legally sell to consumers. It's basically Chappie for humans.
By imported, I presume you mean from places like Ireland, that imho produces the best beef in the world. All packaging has the EC cutting plant and usually the slaughter plant printed on it. . Most of these "farm shops" are supplied from a wholesaler as well but people still think the meat comes from the adjacent farmer's field and what they're buying was happily chewing the grass and roaming around in the field the day before. Speaking of supermarkets, beware of any meat branded as coming from 'x farms', eg. Tesco Woodside Farms (pork), Willow Farms (chicken) and Boswell Farms (beef). All the names are made up. It's imported crap that is pumped full of water and colourings and you wouldn't even feed it to your dog. The other supermarkets all have their own ficticious 'farm' names as well, including the German supermarkets and it's all the lowest grade meat that they can legally sell to consumers. It's basically Chappie for humans.
I too used to work in the meat trade, for Swift Meats and for a beef cutting plant. The majority of 'Boswell Farms' stuff comes from large EC approved Abattoirs and cutting plants in Ireland and England - not as you infer, some back street plant. I don't think anyone with triple digit IQ thinks for one minute that any of these 'farms' exist. Most of the chicken comes from 2 Sisters Food Group - recently caught changing best before dates on fresh chicken, not just for the big four supermarkets either.
Truth is, if you don't want your bacon or chicken pumped full of water to 'make weight' don't buy it from a big store. Water is a lot cheaper to produce than chicken or bacon.
Incidentally, I had an absolutely delicious Boswell Farms joint of beef this weekend. Nothing at all wrong with it. I would suggest it's more brand snobbery and cooking ignorance that is the problem here.
If you care about the things you're putting into your body (and that of your family/children), is it really that difficult to do a bit of research? Use the internet, talk to your local butcher, ask friends/family.
If you don't care enough, then please continue to buy lowest common-denominator supermarket meat, but don't complain about it.
I'll just leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KliNd7J6vSM
If you don't care enough, then please continue to buy lowest common-denominator supermarket meat, but don't complain about it.
I'll just leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KliNd7J6vSM
Tyre Smoke said:
By imported, I presume you mean from places like Ireland, that imho produces the best beef in the world. All packaging has the EC cutting plant and usually the slaughter plant printed on it.
I too used to work in the meat trade, for Swift Meats and for a beef cutting plant. The majority of 'Boswell Farms' stuff comes from large EC approved Abattoirs and cutting plants in Ireland and England - not as you infer, some back street plant. I don't think anyone with triple digit IQ thinks for one minute that any of these 'farms' exist. Most of the chicken comes from 2 Sisters Food Group - recently caught changing best before dates on fresh chicken, not just for the big four supermarkets either.
Truth is, if you don't want your bacon or chicken pumped full of water to 'make weight' don't buy it from a big store. Water is a lot cheaper to produce than chicken or bacon.
Incidentally, I had an absolutely delicious Boswell Farms joint of beef this weekend. Nothing at all wrong with it. I would suggest it's more brand snobbery and cooking ignorance that is the problem here.
Your taste buds must be wrecked if you find any supermarket own brand meat "delicious" I too used to work in the meat trade, for Swift Meats and for a beef cutting plant. The majority of 'Boswell Farms' stuff comes from large EC approved Abattoirs and cutting plants in Ireland and England - not as you infer, some back street plant. I don't think anyone with triple digit IQ thinks for one minute that any of these 'farms' exist. Most of the chicken comes from 2 Sisters Food Group - recently caught changing best before dates on fresh chicken, not just for the big four supermarkets either.
Truth is, if you don't want your bacon or chicken pumped full of water to 'make weight' don't buy it from a big store. Water is a lot cheaper to produce than chicken or bacon.
Incidentally, I had an absolutely delicious Boswell Farms joint of beef this weekend. Nothing at all wrong with it. I would suggest it's more brand snobbery and cooking ignorance that is the problem here.
. Incidentally I used to work for 2 Sisters as well out of S
horpe and Flixton factories. If you saw the way the chicken was processed and the complete disregard for hygiene at the Flixton plant (also the one at Wolverhampton) you would never eat supermarket chicken again! I've no idea how they're still in business as they've featured on the news for all the wrong reasons on countless occasions.It is all consumer driven, we want to buy things as cheaply as possible so the supermarkets provide them.
The old adage of you get what you pay for is very true in this case. Supermarket net profit margains are very low, 3-5% maybe, so they rely on volume, and to get volume it needs to be cheap which is where the consumer comes in, hence the growth of the like of Aldi and Lidl.
Then we have the nerve to complain when they don't match the quality of a traditional butchers and "doctor" their products to make money. If you don't want your chickens pumped full with water buy elsewhere.
It's a funny old world.
The old adage of you get what you pay for is very true in this case. Supermarket net profit margains are very low, 3-5% maybe, so they rely on volume, and to get volume it needs to be cheap which is where the consumer comes in, hence the growth of the like of Aldi and Lidl.
Then we have the nerve to complain when they don't match the quality of a traditional butchers and "doctor" their products to make money. If you don't want your chickens pumped full with water buy elsewhere.
It's a funny old world.
Lemming Train said:
The vast majority of one-man band butcher's meat comes from a wholesaler like Weddel Swift. I used to work for them. Always used to make me chuckle watching the old dears in the Leeds meat market comparing quality from one place to the next, completely oblivious to the fact that we supplied about half of the businesses there with the exact same products all from the same place . Most of these "farm shops" are supplied from a wholesaler as well but people still think the meat comes from the adjacent farmer's field and what they're buying was happily chewing the grass and roaming around in the field the day before.
Speaking of supermarkets, beware of any meat branded as coming from 'x farms', eg. Tesco Woodside Farms (pork), Willow Farms (chicken) and Boswell Farms (beef). All the names are made up. It's imported crap that is pumped full of water and colourings and you wouldn't even feed it to your dog. The other supermarkets all have their own ficticious 'farm' names as well, including the German supermarkets and it's all the lowest grade meat that they can legally sell to consumers. It's basically Chappie for humans.
I was sceptical on your post, fake news being at the forefront of my mind. Then i did some googling.. . Most of these "farm shops" are supplied from a wholesaler as well but people still think the meat comes from the adjacent farmer's field and what they're buying was happily chewing the grass and roaming around in the field the day before. Speaking of supermarkets, beware of any meat branded as coming from 'x farms', eg. Tesco Woodside Farms (pork), Willow Farms (chicken) and Boswell Farms (beef). All the names are made up. It's imported crap that is pumped full of water and colourings and you wouldn't even feed it to your dog. The other supermarkets all have their own ficticious 'farm' names as well, including the German supermarkets and it's all the lowest grade meat that they can legally sell to consumers. It's basically Chappie for humans.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmou...
i can't believe i missed this in the press
Lemming Train said:
Your taste buds must be wrecked if you find any supermarket own brand meat "delicious" . Incidentally I used to work for 2 Sisters as well out of Shorpe and Flixton factories. If you saw the way the chicken was processed and the complete disregard for hygiene at the Flixton plant (also the one at Wolverhampton) you would never eat supermarket chicken again! I've no idea how they're still in business as they've featured on the news for all the wrong reasons on countless occasions.
My taste buds are fine thanks. As it happens, I agree with you regarding 2 sisters, but simply slating me and implying I don't know or care what I am eating because I don't fawn all over you because you have worked in a couple of processing plants, is typical Pistonheads, and wrong.. Incidentally I used to work for 2 Sisters as well out of Shorpe and Flixton factories. If you saw the way the chicken was processed and the complete disregard for hygiene at the Flixton plant (also the one at Wolverhampton) you would never eat supermarket chicken again! I've no idea how they're still in business as they've featured on the news for all the wrong reasons on countless occasions.Supermarket meat is produced to a price. Your average shopper doesn't care where it comes from or how it gets there. I find supermarket chicken a convenience. Rather like a Big Mac.
Does your views of supermarket meat extend to supermarket fuel by any chance? Because the roads are littered with broken down vehicles using that, along with various people dying because they ate meat from a supermarket.
It would seem that anyone who uses a butcher over a supermarket for their meat is very much in the small minority and getting smaller. I cannot personally justify paying £25+ for a joint of beef from the butcher when I can buy the same joint of beef (as far as I am concerned) for less than half that at one of the big four supermarkets. Incidentally, the beef tastes a lot better if you leave it at least a week past it's best before date. It's all slaughtered and packed very quickly for the 'just in time' requirements of the supermarkets.
samsock said:
It's the kind of thing that I just have to stick your head in the sand about, or I would go crazy. My brain knows on some level it should be impossible to buy a half decent chicken for less than a tenner, but la de la de la, save a fiver.
If you've got a fiver, you've got a party.. (in iceland frozen foods at least)oh and, from experience, their 'hot food platters' should not even be given to homeless people. We did a works thing ages ago and promised hot food, was a last minute thing, never again!
samsock said:
It's the kind of thing that I just have to stick your head in the sand about, or I would go crazy. My brain knows on some level it should be impossible to buy a half decent chicken for less than a tenner, but la de la de la, save a fiver.
I think about it from the perspective of how much quality of life does a fiver (when taking into account decent profit at every step of the journey) buy a chicken. I'm unlikely to change the industry by myself, and I'm not about to go on some kind of crusade, but it helps my conscience.
C70R said:
If you care about the things you're putting into your body (and that of your family/children), is it really that difficult to do a bit of research? Use the internet, talk to your local butcher, ask friends/family.
If you don't care enough, then please continue to buy lowest common-denominator supermarket meat, but don't complain about it.
I'll just leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KliNd7J6vSM
Did you miss my original post about normally going to the butchers.If you don't care enough, then please continue to buy lowest common-denominator supermarket meat, but don't complain about it.
I'll just leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KliNd7J6vSM
Was in Sainsburys, needed some dead bird to make a quick curry and the butchers closes when I return from the daily grind and we had none left, my point was why are they allowed to inflate chicken to a third bigger than normal with water that you then need to boil off ?
J4CKO said:
Did you miss my original post about normally going to the butchers.
Was in Sainsburys, needed some dead bird to make a quick curry and the butchers closes when I return from the daily grind and we had none left, my point was why are they allowed to inflate chicken to a third bigger than normal with water that you then need to boil off ?
Link or something to support this please? "plumping" is not something that can be achieved mechanically in a whole carcass and pretty much only occurs in the US and certainly not in the UK.Was in Sainsburys, needed some dead bird to make a quick curry and the butchers closes when I return from the daily grind and we had none left, my point was why are they allowed to inflate chicken to a third bigger than normal with water that you then need to boil off ?
We used to buy the bog standard Tesco chicken for a fiver or whatever but noticed they nearly always had broken bones so started to think a bit more about how they're produced. There's probably not much in it, and I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me it's a con, but we get the free range ones now which seem a bit better..
Lemming Train said:
Tyre Smoke said:
By imported, I presume you mean from places like Ireland, that imho produces the best beef in the world. All packaging has the EC cutting plant and usually the slaughter plant printed on it.
I too used to work in the meat trade, for Swift Meats and for a beef cutting plant. The majority of 'Boswell Farms' stuff comes from large EC approved Abattoirs and cutting plants in Ireland and England - not as you infer, some back street plant. I don't think anyone with triple digit IQ thinks for one minute that any of these 'farms' exist. Most of the chicken comes from 2 Sisters Food Group - recently caught changing best before dates on fresh chicken, not just for the big four supermarkets either.
Truth is, if you don't want your bacon or chicken pumped full of water to 'make weight' don't buy it from a big store. Water is a lot cheaper to produce than chicken or bacon.
Incidentally, I had an absolutely delicious Boswell Farms joint of beef this weekend. Nothing at all wrong with it. I would suggest it's more brand snobbery and cooking ignorance that is the problem here.
Your taste buds must be wrecked if you find any supermarket own brand meat "delicious" I too used to work in the meat trade, for Swift Meats and for a beef cutting plant. The majority of 'Boswell Farms' stuff comes from large EC approved Abattoirs and cutting plants in Ireland and England - not as you infer, some back street plant. I don't think anyone with triple digit IQ thinks for one minute that any of these 'farms' exist. Most of the chicken comes from 2 Sisters Food Group - recently caught changing best before dates on fresh chicken, not just for the big four supermarkets either.
Truth is, if you don't want your bacon or chicken pumped full of water to 'make weight' don't buy it from a big store. Water is a lot cheaper to produce than chicken or bacon.
Incidentally, I had an absolutely delicious Boswell Farms joint of beef this weekend. Nothing at all wrong with it. I would suggest it's more brand snobbery and cooking ignorance that is the problem here.
. Incidentally I used to work for 2 Sisters as well out of Shorpe and Flixton factories. If you saw the way the chicken was processed and the complete disregard for hygiene at the Flixton plant (also the one at Wolverhampton) you would never eat supermarket chicken again! I've no idea how they're still in business as they've featured on the news for all the wrong reasons on countless occasions.The reason they're still in business is that:
1: No-one's ever heard of them. It's hard to withdraw your support for a business when you don't know that business exists. On a supermarket shelf, it's impossible to tell which factory has produced which chicken for 99% of consumers.
2: They produce chicken to the right price (and probably subsequently the right standard) on a consistent basis with consumer friendly cuts (Thighs, Breast, Mini Fillet, Whole Bird, Drumsticks etc). If they didn't, Major Retail wouldn't touch them.
3: They're so big that it would be almost impossible for one firm to replace them, but they have long-term contracts with retailers so what hope does someone else have?
Regards Red Meat. I'd argue it's almost impossible to figure out where it's come from to a normal consumer.
Your options:
Buy from a butcher, by all means, but he's bought from a meat wholesaler. Where's the wholesaler bought their meat from? Probably a similar company to the Retailers. Where does a retailer buy from - a Meat Cutting/Processing plant: Dunbia/Dawn Meats for Beef/Karro Foods/Cranswick for Pork. Massive companies that very few people have heard of.
I'd argue there's not much difference in terms of the meat. Butcher's do have a greater variety of cuts - because of the flexibility of their supply chain, you can get 30+ day aged steaks, and you generally get better marbelling, because the Retailers don't want fatty meat. And you can probably say that the cheap made-up minute steak cuts and casserole cuts from a Supermarket are mostly made up of bits they can't sell anywhere else from animals that have already been slaughtered but are too expensive to go for Pet Food.
Unless you know your butcher and he can guarantee the whole farm to fork supply chain, shop where you prefer, but it's probably not worth a massive premium.
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