Posts
Loading ...I too shop at Tescos but as a vegetarian - it’s the only guranteed way of avoidng bugs and indeed eating dead animals!
Excuse me, there’s a bug in my turkey
By Will last year, at the end of May Leave a comment on this post
26% of the British population, an estimated 16m people, shop at Tesco every week and I am one of them. Generally, I think it’s a reasonable shop and I’ve never had any ill effects or need to complain. Until today.
Shopping for a culinary extravaganza later this evening I browsed the turkey. It’s all pre-packaged and all looked fine, until a customer next to me started laughing and pointing at one of the packets. There was a bug in it. He was a tourist here on holiday, and found the whole experience very amusing. I’m not sure where he was from, but he didn’t seem to particularly care, and grabbed the next nearest one.
Naturally, I kicked up a fuss on his behalf. After last week’s Panorama investigation into out-of-date food (and other horrors) prepared at both Tesco and Sainsbury’s, I was pretty shocked. The bug appeared to have wings but, from what I could see, had embedded itself into the turkey. God knows where it had been before it landed on this particular strip of exquisite meat.
Tesco’s response was revealing and encouraging. The bloke I approached was absolutely shocked and went into a mild panic, telling me he had to find his manager. “I’m meant to report this, I’ve got to report this,” and so he did. 10 minutes later the manager had been coaxed down from his office onto the floor who was very, very wary of me indeed but apologetic and assured me it would be looked into. According to him, it will be sent away for testing. What about all the other food there? He was less certain - and of course, there’s not a lot Tesco can do short of issuing a public health warning that some meat bought on May 27 from Hammersmith might be infected or contaminated. And they won’t do that unless absolutely necessary for fear of eating into their vast profits.
The manager ordered all of “that batch” of food be taken off the shelf, but the damage has already been done. The shop was closing, the bought food now winging its way across London into people’s kitchens. No one will be any the wiser and, if someone is ill, then so be it.
It was a lesson though. I tend to pick stuff up, make sure it’s not blue or green etc and hopefully find something that isn’t coated in fat, and that’s that. But to see an actual bug, a fly, nestling in the meat…it does make you think.
Tags: bug, contaminated, fly, food, hammersmith, london, sainsbury, tesco, waitrose |
11 Responses to “Excuse me, there’s a bug in my turkey”
May 27th, 2007 at 7.32 pm
May 27th, 2007 at 8.40 pm
We don’t have a Tesco’s over her, but my landlady runs a butchers shop and her impecable hygiene to apparent to us all. Support the small shops!
May 28th, 2007 at 1.48 am
Extra protein. Good for you.
May 28th, 2007 at 2.32 am
Unfortunately John, being a veggie does not mean that you avoid bugs… we Americans recently had a huge problem with E Coli on Spinach… etc etc
May 28th, 2007 at 3.50 am
(The last time I bought a packet of spinach in Tesco, there was an earwig in it.)
I find it scarier that we have become so far removed from our food. I grew up in a food business, on a semi-farm, in a village full of sheep. I don’t know anyone who can tell me where their food comes from. In the cities, there are generations of kids who don’t know what vegetables are, or how they are made.
With mass chain production and distribution of food, the quality and taste has plummeted. The vegetables are waxed, the meat is dyed red, and people think this means they taste good. Put some supermarket bacon in your pan, and it will disappear in a puff of steam.
I’m a vegetarian now, but I find it sad there are no high street butchers who actually know what they are doing, where their food came from, and how to cook it. I find it sad there are fewer and fewer high street grocers, fish shops, and grog shops. And there is an obsession with our goverment over extortionate nanny regulations, just to ensure all small businesses shut down. Everybody buys everything now from the supermarket now. Even books - hence the closure of all independent bookshops.
If you are a grower, these supermarkets control the entire market. They can close your business overnight, even if you have a contract, because they have absolute power. Everybody works at Tesco, so they control your earnings, your insurance, your mortgage, your pension, your petrol, your life.
There are literally six people in Britain who decide what we will all eat: the buyers for Tesco, Walmart, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Somerfield, and Waitrose. If they don’t like it, you won’t be able to buy it.
Compare the food in UK supermarkets to food in France and see how we are missing out.
May 28th, 2007 at 11.03 am
You might be interested in the Tesco response to the reports this week. You can judge whether it’s convincing here: http://newscounter.com/fullStory.jsp?id=764289
May 28th, 2007 at 12.16 pm
Do you people mind? I’m trying to eat!
May 28th, 2007 at 3.14 pm
As a student, I tend to survive on cheapish food. So not overly able to support the small shops. Still, my cheap kippers smell amazing right now… and hopefully any bugs are being boiled to pieces.
May 28th, 2007 at 3.41 pm
Emma, if you’re not a vegetabletarian, then buying meat from a small butchers is *definitely* cheaper. I buy all my meat (which, in fairness isn’t very much) from a butchers in Dorking where I work, and it’s both better quality and cheaper. I get most of my fruit from the market on North End Road in Fulham, conveniently located on the ‘cycle’ part of my 3-hour daily commute :/
May 28th, 2007 at 4.11 pm
Really? Might just be this one in particular, but my local butcher (on the long walk from the bus stop as opposed to the lazy/wet day route) is tres cher indeed. Must search out others, maybe.
Kippers, as it goes, were damn good. Though the ensuing B&Js cookie dough was even better.
May 28th, 2007 at 4.32 pm
Darn, intertoob malfunction. Try again.
The gist of my post that just got eaten was (a) Dorking’s a funny place that actively campaigned against building a big supermarket in the middle of the town and (b) I’m a treehugger, so buying locally suits me because the stuff is often sourced locally. So you may need to shop around to find somewhere that hasn’t been priced out my the megacorporatocracy.
Comments
« Celebrity commentators: Jools Holland | Main | Slow but steady wins the race »
