The Co-op's getting much more sophisticated these days & I usually give them praise.
Just bought a pack of bacon which proudly announced 82% Pork!!
Soon it will be Pork flavoured?
there's that dreadful man in norfolk, you know the "bootiful" one, whose slurried hams et al are 99% water - no wonder the nation gets ill >:(
Quote from: calendula on November 11, 2007, 12:05:40
there's that dreadful man in norfolk, you know the "bootiful" one, whose slurried hams et al are 99% water - no wonder the nation gets ill >:(
If you're daft enough to buy his products, you really are not intelligent enough to post on this site!!!!!!
valmarg
Sorry, calendula my post looks a bit snottier than I meant it to be!!
On the TV news tonight they are reporting birds being slaughtered because they have asian bird flu at a site near Diss. Is this the same bootiful producer?
valmarg
???
Same thought struck me Val! I am sure we will find out...eventually!
>:(
Quote from: valmarg on November 12, 2007, 19:42:20
Sorry, calendula my post looks a bit snottier than I meant it to be!!
On the TV news tonight they are reporting birds being slaughtered because they have asian bird flu at a site near Diss. Is this the same bootiful producer?
valmarg
That's ok I didn't imagine it was meant for me :-\ I never touch any of his produce, it disgusts me and I would gladly slurry him and those like him. Not sure where his farm is but I'm not surprised if it is his and even if it isn't also not surprised that the turkeys are getting so ill kept as they are on these dreadful factories at this time of year - there is also much evidence to say that the bird 'flu doesn't exist (just drug company propaganda) and that these birds are just at death's door due to their living conditions
so many have a lot to learn regarding what goes into food, so we have a right to be as snotty as we like ;D
The bit that really irritates me, if it is Mr bootiful's flocks that are being slaughtered, we the british taxpayers will have to pay him compensation, under EU rules, for his unhygienic conditions, the same as we did after the last outbreak on his premises. That really makes my blood boil!!
No calendula, my remark was not targeted at you, and neither do I touch any of his products. Since I learned about it, (many years ago) I have never been a fan of reconstituted slurry.
Two books I read a few years ago were 'Shopped', and 'Not on the Label'. I shall have to look up who the authors were, but they were real eye openers when it came to buying supermarket meat.
I do do my best to buy free range, meat, eggs, etc.
valmarg
once upon a time a long time ago i worked for the said bootiful producer, i was 18 and lasted 2 days, i have done some truly awful jobs in the 20 odd years since but i still have nightmares about tat place and have been a veggie since those 2 days in Aug in the 80's he does have factory's in diss and hungry and somewhere else maybe germany, and since he is the biggest turkey producer in Europe (have they seen what he calls turkey) i think it could be safe to assume they are his birds!
isn't it sad that we live in a world wheremost children can order quite happily from a fast food/burger place or know what processed carp they like from the supermarket freezers but we have to teach in schools that milk comes from cows!!
OK I'm going to shut up now lol
hows this for good kids then mother in law bought cheap burgers and kids (6 &3) would not them said there not ones like daddy gets whats all stuff in the pan m-i-l "just a bit of fat out of the burgers" kids left them
I was sad to see that the last free range Chicken we had from our excellent Butcher had hock burn.
I shall be having a word with his supplier.
we have to be fussy and demand better, try and educate others but phew! that's a full time job ;D
Whatever happened to reducing compensation because of contributory negligence?
Calendula you don't need to demand anything if you use a proper butcher, and if you can cultivate a relationship with him there's all sorts of perks. He gets to know your preferences so you can come away with exactly what you want. Just last week when I called he went into his fridge and came out with a piece of topside which was very old and dark, knowing that's what I prefer. I bid him a fiver and got it for six. This was over 2½lb of Aberdeen Angus from Scotland with a certificate of provenance.
In the interests of keeping within the thread, if I was going to buy a turkey from him I know that it would have come from a farm which I can actually see if I look out of my Velux-a-like window. Ditto most of my pig meat, all with no added water. This is really an advert for local butchers, ;D but seriously it does seem a shame to fill our plates with home grown veg, then ruin it all with sub standard supermarket meat.
Apologies to all the veggies among you.
Geoff.
Quote from: tim on November 13, 2007, 08:25:09
I was sad to see that the last free range Chicken we had from our excellent Butcher had hock burn.
I shall be having a word with his supplier.
'Free range' hens bred for their meat are often kept in sheds (often converted batteries) in flocks of 16,000 or more. They are allowed access to the outside, as the law requires, but many of the birds will never leave because the exits are guarded by more aggressive birds hence the hock burns.
Overcrowding inside the sheds causes difficulties to arise with the large numbers of hens. As the birds can only recognise a maximum of about 100 other hens, no pecking order â€" and hence social stability â€" is established. This results in aggression, feather plucking and cannibalism.
Although 'free range' claims to be the humane option, debeaking is in fact more common in 'free range' hens than battery hens. Debeaking is where a hen has the tip of their beak removed with a red-hot cutter. The hen's beak is very sensitive so this causes immense suffering.
Quote from: euronerd on November 13, 2007, 15:25:58
Calendula you don't need to demand anything if you use a proper butcher, and if you can cultivate a relationship with him there's all sorts of perks. He gets to know your preferences so you can come away with exactly what you want.
Geoff.
oh I do I do but i found out he's also selling viagra on the side ;D
Yes, Baccy Man - I was afraid someone would confirm our belief. One just lives in hope.
I must suggest that the butcher visits the farm so that he can best advise his clients.
Our local butcher can tell you exactly where each piece of meat came from right down to the field it was living in the day before it went to the abattoir so you can check the conditions for yourself. They also guarantee all meat in the shop is 100% vegetarian, they refuse to sell meat from animals given an unnatural diet.
Unfortunately Tesco is currently trying to purchase a large section of the town if they succeed then in a small town like Machynlleth the local shops are likely to go out of business & we will be stuck with the low quality mass produced crap that the likes of mr Matthews produces & very little information relating to the conditions it was reared in.
About the only information you can get easily from meat sold in supermarkets is from the label on wrapped meat products which carries a code from which you can easily find the producer. Just type in ‘astab’ and the UK number on a Google search eg "ASTAB 4014" and the supplier’s name will appear. Although this information is of no real use in most instances.
All most helpful.
And only a week ago the Competition Committee - or whatever it's called - ruled that Tesco & the like were not putting the small shops out of business. In God's name, where can one go from here? Who's paying who to say that??
Our Butcher is ace with meat, but I suppose that he has to compromise with what he can get locally in the way of Birds. And who can he find that runs a humane system??
Glad to see that the Co-op is becoming more & more Fair Trade &, for what it's worth, Freedom Food.
No, don't spoil that one for me too!!
lol @calendula ;D I need to watch my phrasing don't I?
There is nothing particularly new about food adulteration. This was widespread 200 years ago with Sulphuric acid beind added to vinegar and chalk to bread. Food manufacturers will always try to make profits by cutting corners. In some cases what they do is both legal and helpful to preserve the product; in other cases not.
The obvious moral of this story is - GROW YOUR OWN!
That takes us the full circle, back to Tim's mention of the co-op at the top, whose main purpose to start with was to make sure its customers were not sold such adullterated food. 8)
Personally I feel like I have to shop at Tesco's (and even this I do online and have it delivered) because I just don't have the free time to go to my local butchers / greengrocers etc to buy better quality food.
If my local butcher and other shops offered online purchase and delivery I'd make all of my purchases through them and I'm sure that many other people would too.
Would never have had such a bad day that I'd ever eat any of Mr Matthews' produce though - I learned my lesson on that score in the late 80's!
Quote from: valmarg on November 12, 2007, 21:29:32
Two books I read a few years ago were 'Shopped', and 'Not on the Label'. I shall have to look up who the authors were, but they were real eye openers when it came to buying supermarket meat.
valmarg
The author is Joanna Blythman. Every person who buys/eats supermarket food should read both these books.
Quote from: davee52uk on November 13, 2007, 18:40:48
The obvious moral of this story is - GROW YOUR OWN!
Well yes dear we do, but in a small garden we haven't got room for flocks of sheep, loads of pigs and cattle, let alone hens for eggs and chooks, as well as the fruit and veg.
We rely on our local butchers for locally produced meats, and I do trust them.
We can only do our best when buying, what we hope, is locally produced meat. We tend to get a lot of our meat from Farmers' Markets.
I don't buy meat from supermarkets anymore, particularly not Tesco. Quite apart from the fact that it doesn't even look appetising, from previous experience it is usually as tough as old boots.
Its extremely difficult, you think you are buying 'the best' available, but as in Tim's case you are suspicious when, as in his case the 'free range' chicken had burns on its legs.
I think there are a lot of farmers out there who are decent and honest, and trying to provide us with decent honest meat, but there doesn't seem to be any guidelines as to where the cowboys end and the decent begins!!
valmarg
Tim I know you don't want me to spoil Freedom Food but your free range chicken with hock burns would of been reared in better conditions. Freedom food is an intensive farming method despite the fact the scheme has the full support of the RSPCA their guidelines mean that a chicken can be allocated a mere 38cm2 in a shed & no access to the outside world, not much of an improvement on a battery farm in my opinion. There is a report which was broadcast on watchdog showing the standards pigs & chickens are kept in HERE (http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-3921569990035211679)(20 minute video).
Fair Trade is going in the right direction but still has a long way to go before the producers really do get a fair deal rather than the supermarkets using the scheme purely to boost profits.
Quotehttp://www.new-agri.co.uk/06-3/pov.html
"Critics say that fair trade will never lift a country out of poverty; indeed, it may keep it there, because the money generated from sales goes almost in its entirety to rich countries which promote the products. Only about 5% of the sale price of a fair trade chocolate bar (which retails for £1.73 in the UK shops) may actually go to the poor country."
John Vidal & Paul Brown, Feel-good factor: But will it save the planet? The Guardian, May 20th, 2005
"The supermarkets... sell Fairtrade as premium lines, with margins to match. Any intelligent person will ask themselves a simple question: should I pay up to 80p more for my bananas when only 5p will end up with the grower; or should I just buy the regular ones and give the difference to a decent development charity?"
Philip Oppenheim, The Spectator, November, 2005
The wife and I have recently been converted to Farmers' markets. There are two in our local area, two weeks apart, so we can top up regularly.
We are most emphatically NOT vegetarian and enjoy meat and lots of it. But there's no getting away from the fact that locally grown, non-intensive and/or organic meat is more expensive than supermarket stuff.
But wait till you get it on the plate - the difference is really remarkable... just like the difference between your lottie veg and the mass produced muck. Once you're converted as we were, there's just no going back :D
BTW We make a routine of picking up a venison joint for about 6 quid, and drool all the way home. Or Pheasants 5 quid a brace. What better Sunday lunch could you ask for, eh? ;D
They are good prices £5 for pheasants...... where you from?
Fair, Free, Freedom........
Makes you spit.
Quote from: Rosyred on November 15, 2007, 14:24:20
They are good prices £5 for pheasants...... where you from?
We go to the Newbury Farmers' Market every first Sunday of the month, that's where we get the pheasants and the venison. There's a dinky one on the A327 between Reading and Arborfield avery third Sunday - seriously nice people there. Take a picnic cos they scatter rugs around the gardens so you can hunker down and have lunch (in good weather of course :D).
Oh, dear, did I provoke something?
I meant, of course, very depressing.