Asda Chinese Deli Counter food ROTTON

milkydrink

I often buy the Chinese or Indian meals in a bag from the Deli counter in Asda. You know where you pick a main course, a rice, a snack & prawn crackers or popadoms.

I purchased a Chinese meal for 3 early Friday evening.

I cooked it tonight:eek:

They are in little sealed containers that you heat in the oven. When I opened them to put them on the plate, the rice stunk to high heaven, I looked into it half expecting to see maggots.

Needless to say it put me off the rest of it, as you think its all bad (might not have been, but with the rice like that it puts you off).

I rung the shop straight away to take the rice off the deli counter, as I was especially worried that someone with a bad sense of smell might buy it (perhaps someone elderly) & rice can be very dangerous.

They asked me when I was returning it I said tomorrow.

Anyway hubby said lets go out & buy a Chinese & while we are at it, you can take that back. I was glad to get it out of the house. Packed everything back up, put it in a plastic bag.

Had to hold the top tight in the car, as you could smell the bad food badly in the confined space.

Got to the shop & the girl on the CS counter called the manager (she was the girl I had spoken to on the phone).

The manager smelt it & said it just smelt of Chinese, but said he was more than happy to give me a refund if I wasn't happy with the product.

I was annoyed at this, its like saying "there's nothing wrong with our product, but here's your money back".

So I asked a customer who had just joined us at the CS at that moment, she said actually I'm a chef, smelt it & said "yes, its off".

The manager then smelt it again & said "hmmm, ok maybe its got a slight after smell".

I said "OK if you doubt it, I'll keep one of those rices' (& I took one) & you keep the rest & we will see if the environmental health agree its off".

Anyway he refunded me the cost of the product & gave me a £5 voucher for my trouble.

I've put it in the freezer, do you think I should freeze or fridge it till Monday.

It really stank:eek: I was annoyed with him trying to fob me off with saying rotton food wasn't rotton. I was causing a scene, or asking for compo, just a refund & for them to promise to check that food.

Needless to say, I refused the "kind" offer of a replacement. Thats why he gave me the £5 voucher I think, because I refused his offer of a replacement.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there
I would freeze it as then it will stay in the same condition as you received it in...if you fridge it, it will continue to deteriorate and ASDA wil claim it has gone off over the weekend..

You probably are'nt intending to buy one from there again...but if you are..i wouldnt reccomend it...I used to work on an ASDA deli counter and when they first started doing the curry and chinese take away i quickly learnt not to buy one. I
t is only my opinion, but lets just say that some of the practices i saw whilst on there led to the fact that i would never buy anything off any deli counter in any super market....

Oh and well done you for taking it back and giving them what for:T :T

milkydrink

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Hi there
I would freeze it as then it will stay in the same condition as you received it in...if you fridge it, it will continue to deteriorate and ASDA wil claim it has gone off over the weekend..

You probably are'nt intending to buy one from there again...but if you are..i wouldnt reccomend it...I used to work on an ASDA deli counter and when they first started doing the curry and chinese take away i quickly learnt not to buy one. I
t is only my opinion, but lets just say that some of the practices i saw whilst on there led to the fact that i would never buy anything off any deli counter in any super market....

Oh and well done you for taking it back and giving them what for:T :T

No LOL if I ever came home with one again my hubby would chuck me out with it I think:rotfl: He was nearly reaching & hes normally the one with the strong stomach. I do have a fantastic sense of smell. So much so that its a pain, because I hate being close to people who are less than fresh.

I used to love getting them from Asdas, because I used to think "well it will be cleaner/safer than a dodgy takeaway":eek: :rotfl: :eek: :rotfl:

I only gave him what for because I was so annoyed with him trying to say, theres nothing wrong & because we are nice, heres you money back.

What do you mean about practices:eek: :shocked: :sad: :huh: _pale_

milkydrink

Well I got up this morning & decided if I want Chinese food I should make some. It will be less risky than Asda or a take-away.
Then I got to thinking, it will be lower fat & healthier too. You can make great Chinese style stir-fries & stuff all very good for you.

So it gave me the kick up the bum I needed to stop buying these Chinese meals & cook ALL from scratch.

I wouldn't dream of buying ready made cottage pies, lasagnes & things like that.

But until now I've never been very confident about Chinese & Indian.

But if I keep trying it will get better & it will be fresh & healthy too:D :beer: :j

argamemnon

The first and last time i bought one of these curry's was last year, as the young lad was filling the tub i noticed i was putting in a lot of sauce so i asked if it possible to have some meat after all it was a chicken curry and his reply was you have 4 pieces we only allow 4 pieces of meat per curry :eek: which i thought was very tight .I know you get what you pay for but i wont be buying that again horrible tastless gunk.

System

You were just right going back to ASDA I think it was years ago I say an item on "That's Life" highlighting the fact that cooked rice becomes toxic if it isn't refrigerated properly as soon as possible after cooking.

Having worked in a supermarket myself in the past I know that it is standard practise to leave trays of food sitting in a aisle for considerable amounts of time getting warmer before it gets loaded into the chill cabinets. This is usually because the person who brought it out gets ordered elsewhere by a supervisor/manager without being given the chance to finish the job they started or return the trays to the main fridges backstage.

milkydrink

That was one of the issues the supermarket programe on BBC2 (I think ?) uncovered about a month ago.

andyrules

Yep, it's true that cooked rice can be dangerous -

http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/asksam/keepingfoodsafe/asksamcooking/#A220063

Kim, are you going to take the rice to the Environmental health? I hope you do as it's time supermarkets cleaned up their act with mouldy food.

Let us know.