‘Oven-proof ’ plastic coating that ruined Xmas turkeys
FURIOUS families have accused Aldi of ruining Christmas when ‘ovenproof’ plastic bags on their turkeys melted.
Pictures posted on social media by at least a dozen disgruntled customers showed the bags left in ribbons, coating birds in plastic.
Some ate the turkey anyway but others binned the entire bird. It came as other supermarket customers complained of unwrapping turkeys to find them rotten or covered in green mould or slime.
The melting oven bags affected some of Aldi’s British free range bronze turkey crowns, which cost £16 a kilo, setting back customers up to £37. Families insisted they followed the instructions to cook in the bag at 160C for an electric fan oven, allowing 20 minutes per kilo plus 70 minutes.
On Twitter Ryan Shirlow complained: ‘“Oven-proof” bag melted in our new oven – turkey skin and bacon had to be scraped off and disposed of.’ Martin Peck posted: ‘Turkey and tray covered in melted plastic! Peeled off the plastic. Will throw skin and bacon away, and will eat the turkey. Not ideal.’
A user called PGR Cars Ltd asked: ‘When is an oven-proof bag not an oven-proof bag? When it’s from Aldi and has £36 of turkey crown in it! It melts instead! Not impressed.” Another Twitter user proclaimed: ‘Christmas ruined.’
Ali Herridge posted on Facebook: ‘The bag clearly isn’t ovenproof and now I have plastic melted into the family Christmas turkey. How has this won a Good Housekeeping magazine award?’
Other shoppers used social media to call on the Food Standards Agency to investigate supermarkets selling birds with mould. Mike Henson tweeted the FSA: ‘It’s time you looked into this and took some appropriate action. It’s just not good enough.’
Most major supermarkets had complaints about rotten turkeys – but these relate to only a small number of the total sold.
Ross Strong posted a picture of a discoloured bird and wrote: ‘Well done Tesco – you’ve ruined Christmas!’ Alison Hayden Lowe contacted Asda to say: ‘Just had to bring my turkey back as it was rancid!! Smelled rotten and had slimey skin.’
Customer service staff at all stores apologised and offered refunds. Aldi said: ‘We are sorry that, in a small number of instances, we did not meet our usual high-quality standards.’
Around ten million turkeys are killed each year in the UK in the run-up to Christmas. Animal welfare campaigners point to poor conditions on turkey farms which lead to health problems for birds.
It is also claimed that chiller cabinets in supermarkets and refrigerated compartments in lorries are not being checked to ensure they are cold enough.