Quality of meat in ALDI?

zzzt

A while ago a German guy told me he would never buy meat at ALDI. Anyway, recently I was in ALDI and looking at the meat and I figured what would he know about ALDI in the UK? It's probably different, and it says on the packet it's sourced from UK farms and talks about the welfare of the animals. Most likely it comes from the same suppliers as the big supermarkets right?

So I bought some chicken breasts and cooked them (just now). This is something I've done hundreds of times before. I cut it into pieces and fried them ready for a curry, but after they were fried I noticed that they were sitting in 1 inch of slimy water. I've never seen that happen before. Maybe a bit of water will leech out, but there was enough water here to completely submerge the chicken! I would say there was enough water in the pan to fill a couple of 250ml glasses. The pieces had also halved in size. Not only that, but it smelt bad. A kind of sulphurous (bad egg) smell. Cooking meat normally smells delicious, but this looked and smelled really unappetising.

I've drowned it in curry sauce now, so hopefully I won't notice anything bad when eating it, but I wondered has anyone else had any experiences like this with meat from ALDI?

aaroncaz

Not had chicken but have had mince, beef and lamb and have been very happy with it.

Cyberman60

I shop a lot in Aldi but must admit that I go to the big supermarkets for my meat as it just looks better quality.

themull1

A lot of cheap meat is injected with water etc to bulk it up.

meer53

I buy chicken, (Whole and breasts) pork and bacon from Aldi every week. I have never had this happen. Their whole chickens are the best i've had from anywhere.

I find it hard to believe that you got 1 inch of water from some chicken breasts. For the meat to smell bad after cooking it would have smelled before cooking. Was it off ?

zzzt

meer53 wrote: »

I find it hard to believe that you got 1 inch of water from some chicken breasts.

I also found it hard to believe but it was right there in front of me. I couldn't believe my eyes and that's why I made this post. The level of water in the pan literally covered the chicken.

meer53 wrote: »

Was it off ?

Use by date was 14th November and I bought it about 4 hours ago and then cooked it as soon as I got home.

The same 540g pack of chicken breast from Morrisons would normally make enough for 2-3 meals so I can freeze some down, but when I served up, there was such a small amount left that it wasn't worth keeping. It definitely had a lot of water weight, and shrank down a huge amount once cooked.

Cyberman60 wrote: »

I shop a lot in Aldi but must admit that I go to the big supermarkets for my meat as it just looks better quality.

Meat is something I don't buy very often so I might do the same. If it's a treat then I don't mind paying £1 more for better quality. Plus if it doesn't shrink when cooked then it actually goes further. To make enough to freeze a portion I would have had to buy double the amount from ALDI so it would have been more expensive.

The vegetables, milk and eggs from ALDI have been perfect so far though. Not had any problems.

bossymoo

I've bought meat and poultry from Aldi on lots of occasions and always been fine. I'm not a fan of red meat myself, but really did enjoy their frying steak. Was tasty and lean but not over-dry.

maman

I've bought various meats from Aldi with mixed results but I could say the same for other SMs.


My favourites that I've never had a problem with are probably the FR chickens and the gammon joints. Ironically, bought chicken breasts for a curry last weekend and they were fine but I cooked mine directly in the curry sauce so wouldn't have noticed any water.


Disappointed with 1kg boneless pork last week as it cooked down to almost nothing in terms of meat and had massive crackling (tasty but not healthy:(). Next time I'll go for a larger joint from another SM.

snowcat75

Most of the UK Chicken is produced by two suppliers only Grampian and Fersenda, They are the only suppliers who can cope with the economics of growing and packaging a bird for about 90p, all that the chains are willing to pay.


Basically if your buying it in a supermarket and its UK produced it will be from the same source, although different chains often want different kill weights.


Personally as a producer although cereals I would say Aldi are the better of the bunch and nearly all there meats are from UK producers, bottom of the bunch IMHO is Tesco who screw prices, outsource from Eastern Europe when the UK can not supply at there set prices. It is why so many of there products ended up being horse.

PLRFD

There's a story in the news about bacteria in chickens the store doesn't want it's name mentioned i think i know what it is.

hgotsparkle

zzzt wrote: »

Not only that, but it smelt bad. A kind of sulphurous (bad egg) smell. Cooking meat normally smells delicious, but this looked and smelled really unappetising.

I've had this from every pack of fresh chicken breasts I've bought from Aldi, which is probably about 4 times.
Thats why I don't shop there at all now. When I fry up Tesco chicken breasts, they have that lovely browning chicken smell, but the Aldi ones always smell like fish.