What's the meat / chicken like from aldi? Is it good quality and treated well? I get

Special Circumstances

RasTa wrote: »

Their slave whole chickens are tasteless disgusting things. Fish is also tasteless.

What were you expecting, even the name is disgusting!

Gloomtastic!

Let's please try and keep it calm folks. In Ireland, nobody is forced to buy their meat from one particular outlet so if you choose different to someone else, so be it!

As for claimimg whether meat is fit for consumption from any source,
unless you have rock-solid proof (which you won't) then please don't mention it again.

With my mod hat removed, I find taking the wrapping off any meat and letting it breath for the day in the fridge helps with flavour and texture. A good sprinkling of seasoning also helps, regardless of source.

92Grainne1992

zerks wrote: »

Just came across this thread by accident, beef is butchered and packed in Clohamon in Co.Wexford by Slaney Group. More is sourced in their sister factories nationwide.AFAIK the lamb is coming from another one of their factories too.So to the ones who seem to believe that the meat comes from a shed in a far flung country,they couldn't be more wrong.

Where are those beef cattle being transported from? Same as the lamb? We've got sheep at home, one gets sent to the local butcher yearly, its killed in a humane way, cut into whatever we order, the innards go to the dogs and nothing goes to waste. Whatever we don't want goes to the butcher for re-sale. Try to buy our beef and Pork from local farmers also. Sometimes means you're literally buying a full carcass but at least you know where it came from. God only knows what part of the country/world Aldi meat is being reared in.

Dial Hard

92Grainne1992 wrote: »

God only knows what part of the country/world Aldi meat is being reared in.

All of their fresh meat & poultry is Irish. Claiming that it's not is a fairly whopper accusation to make.

Bord Bia wrote:

All of Aldi’s fresh poultry, beef, pork and lamb is 100% traceable and sourced exclusively from Republic of Ireland farms certified under the Bord Bia scheme.

http://www.shelflife.ie/aldi-meats-the-quality-mark-in-new-bord-bia-survey/

odyssey06

92Grainne1992 wrote: »

God only knows what part of the country/world Aldi meat is being reared in.

Meet George Stanley from Co. Laois:
https://www.aldi.ie/love-ireland/lamb

92Grainne1992

Dial Hard wrote: »

All of their fresh meat & poultry is Irish. Claiming that it's not is a fairly whopper accusation to make.



http://www.shelflife.ie/aldi-meats-the-quality-mark-in-new-bord-bia-survey/

Fish? I don't fancy Tuna that was caught on the other side of the world, I'd rather fresh mackerel from Dun Laoghaire.

I think we all just need to be a bit more aware of where our chicken dippers/frozen burgers are coming from.

I don't have a massive issue with Irish reared meat, apart from the fact the average Joe Soap doesn't know exactly where its coming from. I would prefer to buy Wicklow Lamb than Donegal Lamb.

I personally like a few cuts of meat in Aldi, however would prefer to buy from the butcher. Not always convenient and it means yes, sometimes I do buy meat from ALDI.

anewme

I dont buy much meat, when I do I buy from a butchers. Agree that some butchers do that poor quality vacum pack stuff that all seems to come from the same warehouse, so try and steer clear of that. I did try the Aldi steaks once and they were ok, I dont get why people were raving about them.

I agree with the fish argument as well, something block frozen about 10 years ago does not appeal to me.

On the subject of chicken, I always buy local free range (farmers gate). I dont know how a chicken can be produced etchically @ 3.99 or whatever it is without cutting corners, ie, either the producer or animal welfare. I dont apply this just to Lidl/Aldi/Tesco etc. but to all meat.

Im lucky in that money is not an issue and id rather pay more but eat less to get higher standard product.

kylith

92Grainne1992 wrote: »

Where are those beef cattle being transported from? Same as the lamb? We've got sheep at home, one gets sent to the local butcher yearly, its killed in a humane way, cut into whatever we order, the innards go to the dogs and nothing goes to waste. Whatever we don't want goes to the butcher for re-sale. Try to buy our beef and Pork from local farmers also. Sometimes means you're literally buying a full carcass but at least you know where it came from. God only knows what part of the country/world Aldi meat is being reared in.

It's not feasible for most people, especially in cities, to do that though.

I'm willing to bet that not a scrap of meat butchered for Aldi gets wasted either. They probably waste less than you do: The meat goes on the shelf, the offcuts and offal go to making pet food, skins for leather, and the bones can be used in everything from wallpaper paste to tattoo ink.

Neon_Lights

Dial Hard wrote: »

All of their fresh meat & poultry is Irish. Claiming that it's not is a fairly whopper accusation to make.



http://www.shelflife.ie/aldi-meats-the-quality-mark-in-new-bord-bia-survey/

I think there's a few misconceptions here, the board bias quality mark doesn't mean it's Irish it just means it meets an approved standard set by board bia. It would need a qas label to assure this.

Just because the meat was 'sourced' in Ireland doesn't necessarily mean its origin is indeed Ireland. It just means it was slaughtered at minimum on an Irish farm, perhaps reared for a certain time.

If you look at the case for example with Callan bacon(an Aldi supplier) for example they were using imported pork as part of their production and still slapping it with the bord bia label. Even overlooking Irish producers.

cutthegrass

anewme wrote:

On the subject of chicken, I always buy local free range (farmers gate). I dont know how a chicken can be produced etchically @ 3.99 or whatever it is without cutting corners, ie, either the producer or animal welfare. I dont apply this just to Lidl/Aldi/Tesco etc. but to all meat.

I read somewhere before that stores sell whole chickens at a loss in order to get customers in. Anyhow for a 1.2Kg whole chicken it's only a couple of euro extra for a free range.

anewme

cutthegrass wrote: »

I read somewhere before that stores sell whole chickens at a loss in order to get customers in. Anyhow for a 1.2Kg whole chicken it's only a couple of euro extra for a free range.

Its not a couple of euro more expensive, the ones I buy are 12.99 or 14.99 as I buy from a local farmer. It takes a bit of an effort for me to get to farm gate, so I only buy when I get a chance to take a drive out. Some of our local decent butchers, stock free range chickens from a local woman as well.

I understand loss leaders, Also, is the same for the 49p veg, do the farmers get paid proper amounts. Milk? Where does it end.

At the end of the day, someone pays the price for driving down the cost of produce be it the workers picking the produce, the farmers, or the animal. Consumers need to educate themselves and make fully informed decisions. For example, I used to buy lots of smoked Salmon, until I found out it was coming from Chile and there were issues with lice etc. Now I only buy very infrequently (as its much more expensive), from a small irish cottage type producer.

I buy local turkey at Christmas and famer told me that the chicks he buys before any rearing can be more expensive than a mass produced end product blast frozen in Brazil.

odyssey06

I'm going to rephrase the OP's original question because the answers are going in the direction of "free range" produce versus mass production.
Is the produce in ALDI, versus free range produce, of lesser quality and of more harmful impact?
I'm going to say YES. And this answer applies just as much to all Irish supermarkets and most produce in most Irish butchers (on the assumption that most of the produce in your average butcher isn't going to be free range for starters).

I live in Dublin city, it's simply not realistic to compare what you're going to get if you have to buy your meat in a big city versus living in the country and buying direct from a local supplier.
It is realistic in the context of this thread to compare the farmed fish available in ALDI versus the farmed fish in fishmongers.
It is not realistic to compare wild caught fish versus ALDI fullstop.
So let's compare like with like.

Is the produce in ALDI, versus the produce in your average butcher, "bad meat", of lesser quality and of more harmful impact?
I'm going to say NO.

Is the produce in ALDI, versus the produce in your average Irish supermarket, "bad meat", of lesser quality and of more harmful impact?
I'm going to say NO.

So really it all comes down to the quality of the butcher you are comparing against.
Maybe you're fortunate enough to have an excellent local butcher available that you trust.
But if you're not, then random ALDI store versus random butchers, unless you are specifically shopping for free range produce, my answer is that you have no reasonable grounds to expect ALDI meat to be "bad" or of lesser quality or of more harmful impact.

Sue Pa Key Pa

We would get 90% of our fresh meat in Aldi. Never a problem. Steaks are great. I don't, however, like their chicken breasts. I find them tough, almost chewy