Bernard Matthews Products

joeyboy

jenniewb wrote: »

But obvious cruelty to animals- to the point where reporters found it easy to predict when and where and go in with a camera- all pre arranged- so they knew it was going to happen as it was regular enough. This just some how seems more frequent, taken less seriously and as a result, I don't trust lessons are learned nor that anything will be done about the gross misconduct.

Where as police may be fired, hospitals may be shut down, I don't trust that BM would react in the same way nor that the new staff would automatically have enough respect for their job. I do wonder not how people like that (those that are cruel) exist but what they are currently experiencing to make them react in such an evil way. Just makes me wonder about the conditions and mentality of the business more then anything else, that the cruelty of animals is/was just a symptom of another cause.

Ok maybe it was a stretch, but at least in the food industry, folks can't go thinking it's only BM with treats poultry badly. Like I said, if it's a frozen product it's probably from the far east unless it states British chicken, I really doubt their standards are high, and frozen British chicken products will be from mass produced factory/caged birds unless it otherwise states. Basically if it's supermarket own brand and cheap, the animal probably hasn't led the best of lives. The morality of that is for another debate, you could argue as a dominant species, we can farm what ever we want, they wouldn't exist without us, they are basically a living protein source being fattened up to produce more mass, which is fed upon on by us as a predator, which is no problem. But then you could argue we have a responsibility to let them live outside naturally before they die.

Realistically with our population size and differing wealth, if people on lower incomes still want a high meat percentage in their diet, thus cheap meat, they have to accept why the cost is so low, something makes say a £3 pack of chicken breasts, different from a £4.50 pack of the same weight, usually it's down to the animals welfare, a premium product will boast it's free range, organic, chickens fed on healthier diets etc. I'm not sure how you'd bring down the price of meat which has the animals welfare in mind, I suppose folks would have to get used to less meat in our diets, like back in the day, even 30+ years ago, meat and two veg was a Sunday thing, and you hardly got the biggest piece of meat compared to veg, now some folks expect meat daily, folks lifestyles have improved, they don't want to go back. Also ironically if we want to help animals by consuming less meat, we might find we damage the environment and habitats even more! I read a study where actually per gram of protein, non-meat sources produced more CO2/damaged the environment by forests being cut down for exotic vegetable crops, then meat products damaged the environment for grazing, it took into the account the production of feed for the animals too.

Oops, I went on a tangent....haha.

jezza2412

On a slightly different tangent again, I recently bought Bernard Matthews Chicken Escalopes and was shocked to find out that they contain only 38% chicken! And they cost £2.99 for two!!

With that lowly proportion, surely they should properly be called "Cheap Filler Escalopes (with Some Added Chicken)"...

joeyboy

jezza2412 wrote: »

On a slightly different tangent again, I recently bought Bernard Matthews Chicken Escalopes and was shocked to find out that they contain only 38% chicken! And they cost £2.99 for two!!

With that lowly proportion, surely they should properly be called "Cheap Filler Escalopes (with Some Added Chicken)"...

was that £3 for two packs of 2? Because they seem to be £1.50...

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-price-comparison/Cooked_Prepared_Meat_And_Poultry/Bernard_Matthews_Chicken_Escalopes_285g.html?BannerID=27&AffiliateID=94852&AffiliateName=Ciao+UK&AffiliateBannerID=0&utm_source=AffiliateWindow&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_content=0&utm_campaign=94852

though having a look at the shops, it seems Sainsburys(aka rip off of the big 3-4) was charging £2.99, now £1.49 half price, ASDA has always been £1.99, but is now 2 for £3.

pollyskettle

We've never bought BM products, not because of bad publicity (to be honest I wasn't aware of any!!) but because they just look so wrong, even in their packaging there's something about them that says 'don't eat me'.

jcr16

i won't buy BM products anymore, after seeing what they did to turkeys. i've not bought BM since then and don't plan to ever again.

joeyboy

pollyskettle wrote: »

We've never bought BM products, not because of bad publicity (to be honest I wasn't aware of any!!) but because they just look so wrong, even in their packaging there's something about them that says 'don't eat me'.

yeah tbh most of their food hardly screams "I'm good for you", and you often find meat is a minority ingredient...

again though folks, you've stopped buying BM because of the media telling you they're mean to turkeys, you stopped to think that most brands with a similar price point are going to be the same..., tis the way of factory farmed chickens...

jenniewb

joeyboy wrote: »

Ok maybe it was a stretch, but at least in the food industry, folks can't go thinking it's only BM with treats poultry badly. Like I said, if it's a frozen product it's probably from the far east unless it states British chicken, I really doubt their standards are high, and frozen British chicken products will be from mass produced factory/caged birds unless it otherwise states. Basically if it's supermarket own brand and cheap, the animal probably hasn't led the best of lives. The morality of that is for another debate, you could argue as a dominant species, we can farm what ever we want, they wouldn't exist without us, they are basically a living protein source being fattened up to produce more mass, which is fed upon on by us as a predator, which is no problem. But then you could argue we have a responsibility to let them live outside naturally before they die.

Realistically with our population size and differing wealth, if people on lower incomes still want a high meat percentage in their diet, thus cheap meat, they have to accept why the cost is so low, something makes say a £3 pack of chicken breasts, different from a £4.50 pack of the same weight, usually it's down to the animals welfare, a premium product will boast it's free range, organic, chickens fed on healthier diets etc. I'm not sure how you'd bring down the price of meat which has the animals welfare in mind, I suppose folks would have to get used to less meat in our diets, like back in the day, even 30+ years ago, meat and two veg was a Sunday thing, and you hardly got the biggest piece of meat compared to veg, now some folks expect meat daily, folks lifestyles have improved, they don't want to go back. Also ironically if we want to help animals by consuming less meat, we might find we damage the environment and habitats even more! I read a study where actually per gram of protein, non-meat sources produced more CO2/damaged the environment by forests being cut down for exotic vegetable crops, then meat products damaged the environment for grazing, it took into the account the production of feed for the animals too.

Oops, I went on a tangent....haha.

Agree that BM probably are not the only group to employ/ed idiots who like to inflict pain on animals just the same as Primark and not the only brand to employ poor sweat shops in India and pocket the extra money made off their backs. But just like the fact there are some people who refuse to shop in Primark (yet will continue to shop in all the other high street stores- most of whom also employ the very same sweat shop workers whilst fat cat managers are pocketing the extra cash to fund their ferraris, 5 homes and 10 holidays a year). Its not that people are being blind to the fact that poor animal treatment does go on, its that it was made just so obvious that now for many people buying BM has become almost like a label saying "I buy cruelly kept animals" in the same way that for many others, carrying a Primark bag has become for them a way of saying to others "I support sweat shop workers".

I am sure if all the cases of inhumane animal treatment, all the cases of sweatshop workers and which brands fund either that things may change again. But no one is reporting on any of this, the media have had their story and unfortunetly for the workers, only BM and Primark have gotten off with bad press as a result.

I don't think it is possible to bring down the cost of meat, I also think that we do as a nation (and perhaps as people in genera;) eat too much meat. There are books written about this, links made to everything from insomnia and depression through to infertility, heart disease and cancer.

Why do we eat meat? We as people, need to consume 1-1.5 grams of protein per kg of body weight (women-men) if we are not too active and just getting on with day to day tasks. The more active we are, the more protein we need, an active person would need 1.5-2.5gram of protein per Kilo of body weight. A chicken breast of about 125g has about 30g of protein in it.
But as far as protein goes, we also need a variation of protein, and it can be had from other sources, from eggs, dairy, nuts, soya and fish for example. Yes we can use meat quite well and as a source of protein it is a very good one, but its not the only form of protein and as far as meat goes, we don't need to get all our protein from it, far from it.

(And now we're really straying from the point:o)

loupnw

I won`t buy any bm and haven`t done for many years

:T

farmerboy

To all those who have posted that they won't buy BM products, what do you buy?

The OP is correct, BM do supply some supermarket own brand products. I have delivered to all the major supermarkets BM products, and along side the BM labels were own brands, all loaded out of the same BM factory.

So you may not think your buying BM when you actually are.:D

~~Diane~~

farmerboy wrote: »

To all those who have posted that they won't buy BM products, what do you buy?

The OP is correct, BM do supply some supermarket own brand products. I have delivered to all the major supermarkets BM products, and along side the BM labels were own brands, all loaded out of the same BM factory.

So you may not think your buying BM when you actually are.:D

Well I buy fresh meat, If my son wants nuggets, which is often, then I go to the butchers and buy a chicken breast, cut it up, freeze half and use the rest to make my own nuggets. I've never found a processed chicken product that tastes half decent anyway.