Turkey horribly off - advice for takign back please

BallandChain

noonesperfect wrote: »

Keep your receipts and the label off the turkey packaging.
Make a point that since turkey is usually cooked on 25th Dec why did THEY send you one with a use-by date of 26th Dec. Make sure you put them on the back foot, without being loud - it doesn't help :rolleyes: .

What a terrible let down.

This happened to my Mum many years ago when I was small. I went into the kitchen and asked what the terrible smell was. Having no sense of smell she hadn't realised and was about to stuff the bird :eek: (I know, I know! but that was how it was done in those days!!). Anyway on turning the bird on it's chest it was discovered to be pale green _pale_ .

Not sure how she missed that as it will have been washed to within an inch of its "life" (something else we're advised not to do nowadays - though I never suffered food poisoning till after I left home).

Hope you managed to find an alternative.

I've always washed chicken before putting it in the oven. When did not washing poultry come about? I haven't cooked it in a long time though but I was taught to wash chicken first. I presume turkey is the same?

There's nothing wrong with eating cooked left overs on the next day. Just make sure it is put in the fridge after the chicken/turkey has cooled down.

Edinburghlass_2

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17033517#post17033517

Freddie_Snowbits

custardy wrote: »

you should worry about those perfectly good turkey left overs you binned
nice turkey ala king is great for boxing day

Binned, nope you should see my cat

poppyolivia

I worked for 10ish years with raw and cooked food etc..we were told that raw food should be cooked before use by (obviously) but then you have an extra 2 days after that NO MATTER what the date was..

ie turkey dated 26th should be cooked say the 25th and can still be scoffed for another 2 days ie 27th and you won't die! Touchwood lol

zappster1966

Life's too short to bother writing letters to MD's. And trading standards won't give a monkey's chunky about one rogue turkey. Best bet is to get a refund, plus a refund on the other ingredients bought to go with the turkey with some goodwill gesture by the store for the inconvenience, a voucher or something along those lines.

Don't think that's so unreasonable in the circs. It'll be interesting to see how the store responds.

QfanatiQ

Shop opens tomorrow

I too have worked in customer service. I know not to get overly annoyed and silly in terms of what i am asking for. Also i am not looking to gain overly from this situation.

This is a well known and usually high standard food chain

I will report back.

Is naming and shaming allowed? As even i would be up front and say this is likely to be most unusual. I think it is because i bought it (shopped myself in store) to be delivered the next day (no more delivery slots that day) and it was not stored properly. This is the only explanation i can possibly think of (as said above all fowl had this 26.12.08 date in this store).

As for use by, i agree with the above. This was a raw product, so use by is cook by. Not then eat and finish by. If that were the case, no supposid stew/soup/cold cuts would pass said use by date once cooked (if using cooked from raw in your own home).

Cheers......Q

andyrules

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

Yes, the OP deserves something for the nature of the problem. A special event purchase that can not be replicated. Some vouchers perhaps or a discount - something for goodwill - hardly the stuff that ClaimsRus are going to be interested in, neither do I think my post was suggesting such or would be taken that way.

Speak to trading standards - Yes, because the OP may not be alone. Birds dont get into the state described overnight. The impression I got from the OP is that care was taken to ensure the bird was refrigerated adequately so why had it become in the state described and was it a one off.

Unfit birds - There was a huge, huge, scandal some time back where rejected for human consumption birds were being fraudulently fed back into the human food system - it included catering packs and other portion packs and was a vast operation. It took a big operation to bust it and the brains behind it fled the country and is, I think, still at liberty.
Trading standards cant do their job and scams like that one go undetected unless the public bring things to their attention.
Trading Standards are there to help, that why we pay to have them there.

Some time ago I found some very sharp splinters of wood in a well known brand of gravy granule. There were several and very sharp, which worried me. I wrote to the manufacturer with the offending splinters. Eventually I recieved a stock letter (no pun intended) and a £5 voucher - Which isn't what I'd wanted, I wasn't looking for compensation or angling for vouchers, I was worried about peoples safety. They said it was from a pallett. Just how much pallet was out there for people to choke on. I wish then that I had gone to trading standards about it.

I wonder what the OP thinks of our tiff, amazed I'm sure. But it would be interesting to know how they read the well intended suggestions

Just reviewed my original posting - Lets put your examples in context shall we?

"You will be making a complaint though I hope - Putrid Turkeys are bad for everyone. And perhaps a reasoned letter to a director of the supermarket explaining how it ruined your Christmas would not go amis. You deserve more compensation than the cost price of the bird. You could also speak to trading standards at your local council in case the supplier has been scammed by having unfit birds smuggled back into the human food chain as happened with chicken a year or two ago."

I think it reads quite differently in context, dont you?

I remember the unfit poultry thing - it supplied schools and major retailers I think - and wasn't the ringleader 'Maggoty Pete' or something? I think one of those consumer documentarys was done and the guy is now behind bars. We should all be vigilant over that - there is always someone willing to risk our health for a fast buck. :rolleyes:

Brooker_Dave

Freddie_Snowbits wrote: »

There, that told me. Mind you, you should see my cat now!...

But then the cat reads the forum and decides to sue you for feeding him or her the killer turkey.

Gingernutmeg

BallandChain wrote: »

I've always washed chicken before putting it in the oven. When did not washing poultry come about? I haven't cooked it in a long time though but I was taught to wash chicken first. I presume turkey is the same?

I'm not sure when the advice to not wash poultry came about, but I've worked in catering for a number of years and in any food hygiene training I've had since the late 90s we've always been told that you shouldn't wash poultry - or any meat, for that matter. The 'science' behind it is that adequate cooking will kill *any* germs/bacteria anyway, and if you wash meat then the drips and splashes will spread germs far more than simply putting the meat in a tin or pan and cooking it. But that's only the current advice lol, no doubt it'll change soon enough

Freddie_Snowbits

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

But then the cat reads the forum and decides to sue you for feeding him or her the killer turkey.

I should be worried, very worried.



Run everyone, RUN

(He is a TOM)