Supermarket RANT!!

[Earthbabe]

My nearest butcher is three doors down although his shop is in Alresford. His meat is superb but unfortunately like kirsty b our budget doesn't always stretch to is. If we want a nice steak we buy his as he stocks orkney gold. His cheaper cuts are superb and he can occasionally get mutton. The only time we do a pork roast is if we can get organic from the farmer's market as the supermarket stuff is revolting.

The aim of GYO for us is to be able to grow enough veggies and fruit to allow us to buy better meat. We are making slow progress but we will get there.

[Alice]

My local supermarket (Asda) is very good at dating food, and reducing the price of meat close to it's sell by date - but, I think the quality of most of the meat is very poor. We tend not to buy, preferring to eat less meat and pay more to buy better quality from a local butcher or the farmers market. There's also the quality of life of the animals to be considered, and we just have to accept that free range costs more.

[Alison]

Thought that one of the things which HFW said in his recent programme was interesting ie that it shouldn't be possible to produce food as cheap as some of the stuff in the supermarkets (think he was looking for BOGOF chooks at the time) as to do this you'd have to sacrifice animal conditions and quality of product. He's right really but it's difficult unless your well off. Read in a different survey though that although house prices etc have gone through the roof, we now spend far less of our money (as a percentage) each week on food. Thought it was interesting.

[HappyMouffe]

There's no reason why the supermarket should reduce their prices on the last day of shelf life. Caveat emptor in this case. Display until (or sell by) dates have no legal standing - just depends on how confident the shop is of selling the stuff by the use by date.

I lecture on food safety & I'm often surprised by the number of people who don't know what is meant by a use-by date or by a best before date and which is safe to eat (and legal to buy) after the date has expired. Best before dates are for products which are safe to eat past this date, but the quality of which may be reduced (e.g. tins, dried goods, biscuits etc). It is not illegal to sell food past its best before date. Use-by dates are found on 'high risk' foods on which food poisoning bacteria can potentially grow. It is unsafe to consume food past its use-by date, as bacteria may grow to unsafe levels after this time. It is also illegal to sell food past its use-by date. Almost all foods must have one or the other of these foods (there are a few exceptions). There is no requirement for a 'display until' or 'sell by' - these are for solely for the convenience of the shop.
Obviously, as Earthbabe comments, this relies on the packaging, chill chain etc being intact.

We do buy our meat from our local butcher, but it's definitely quite a lot more expensive than the supermarket.

Sorry - I'll shut up now

[pickledtink]

I'd rather eat cheaper cuts of good meat and much smaller portions of the more expensive ones.
My butchers gorgeous organic pork chops are definitelty more expensive than the supermarket but the belly slices are lean, delicious and very reasonable. His stewing beef is cheap but really tender.Lamb and beef mince is cheaper than the best supermarket steak mince but of comparable quality. Free range chickens are about £4.00 each so not as cheap as the cheapest supermarket chicken but those are absolutely 'fowl'

Before I discovered him I used another good Butcher just across the road but they are much more expensive so I always got these cheaper cuts.
If you've got a good butcher you have to travel to I think it's worth bulk buying and freezing for convenience. It still beats supermarket stuff even when it's been frozen I reckon.

[Alice]

No, don't shut up HappyMouffe. Thanks for all the information. It's just all what I thought it meant but nice to have it confirmed.

Alison, you don't have to be well off to eat good quality meat or pay the increased price to ensure animal welfare. You just decide how much you can afford to spend for meat each week / month and buy the best you can get for it. In between times there's fruit, veg, salad, pasta, pulses, beans, cheese, eggs etc and millions of great recipes. Meat is a luxury, not a necessity.

Gee whiz, that sound like a bit of a lecture. Not meant that way at all. Just have a think on it - that's all.

[Alison]

It's OK, Alice, I agree about using beans, pulses etc we use loads and they're dead cheap if you buy the bags of dried ones. What I was trying to say (but not very well as I usually forget to read my posts before sending!) was that if you want to eat a better quality of meat then you need to re-think your whole philosophy on how you do your shopping ie most people haven't got the finances to suddenly start buying a pure high quality organic diet without making compromises - these don't have to have a negative impact but do involve a bit of thought and initial effort. Reading back through the posts above it seems that most of us are trying to do the best we can but are typically constrained by our location, finances and most likely by time itself! Hope that makes sense.

[Alice]

You're absolutely right Alison. We can't all do everything all at once, and there's no need to be extreme about food or anything else. We just made a personal decision not to buy any kind of meat that involved animals being kept in inhumane ways or reared in unnatural conditions. It does cost more, so we just eat it less often.

We grow what we can ourselves, and buy the rest. Everything in the supermarket is NOT poison. It's a matter of common sense and practicality.

[Sunbeam]

What started this rant to the supermarket is the fact that supermarkets, or certainly the one I use, appear to have done away with the practise of putting a 'sell-by' date on their produce which used to predate the use-by date by a couple /three days... this may not be a legal obligation, but it gave the consumer the peace of mind that the produce bought was good for a couple of days when you got it home; which was not the case when I got my food home.

I think it is wrong that they have done away with this just to line their already bursting coffers! With the majority of consumers using their facilities for convenience sake, and I was one of these, both saving time and money in milage, it appears to me that they are pushing the limits of what is acceptable further and further...

We are in the same boat as Kirstyb and Earthbabe... pennies are often tight, but I still try to ensure the meat I have bought is free range or organic and I do buy cheaper cuts of meat - but it doesn,t mean that every now and again we can't have a roast free range chicken as a treat. What it does mean is that when I feel I have been ripped off (and I do) that get on my high horse!

[Alison]

Suppose that with the supermarkets the person who makes policy decisions doesn't have to look at the customer over the counter the same way as the butcher, greengrocer etc does. Also they know that people will put up with quite a lot for the convenience of being able to get everything under one roof. I would suggest you write to your supermarket, Sunbeam, outlining your comments but I'm not sure you'll get anywhere. I got really annoyed with Asda last year (can't even remember why now!) and wrote, heard nothing so e-mailed them complaining that I hadn't heard anything and still no reply. Made a note to stop shopping there but still do pop in occaisionally even if it's only for a pint of milk, as it's very close to work.

[kirsty b]

I agree with you Alison with regard to utilising the cheaper cuts. It seems to be a thing of the past slow cooking cheaper cuts but in reality they are the tastiest ones.

If anyone saw Heston Blumenthal's steak programme the other day, all of the chefs regard fillet steak (the most expensive) as boring to cook and tasteless. He used a forerib of beef which is a cut we always use if roasting beef as I feel its the best tasting. I am going to try using it for steaks as well as it is wonderfully marbled. A bonus is that its much cheaper than fillet.

Try slow cooked stewing steak (left as steaks) cooked with shallots, mushrooms and the holy trinity of veg. Cheap and wonderfully tasty.

A beef brisket joint, or diced shin always comes out lovely in the slow cooker. Nicer than dearer cuts. And I use ox kidney in steak and kidney pies instead of lamb/pig now.

[Alice]

Our local Asda have a 100 % satisfaction guarantee on everything and an absolutely no Quibble returns policy. If you are not happy they replace any item and give a free one. I thought that was nationwide with them but maybe it's just down to the manager. I don't think you can do better than that.

[Alison]

They may have such a guarantee round here too, this was more a complaint about their range ie the amount of additive ridden rubbish they had on special and that the stuff I wanted whilst advertised as available nationwide in their mag, wasn't actually in store. Something like that anyway - didn't really expect them to do anything much but would have at least liked an acknowledgment.

[valmarg]

Sorry, have not read much of the above, but if you want decent edible meat you do not go to a supermarket!!!!

valmarg

[Alice]

Asda's not for you Alison. I can tell. I like your style. keep it up.