Is the meat in Alda/Lidl safe? What's the quality of it?

corkcomp

Unless you grow or rear your own food there will always be an element of the unknown. Personally I refuse to pay the huge premiums charged for organic meat and vegetables, I'm quite happy to eat a €5 chicken vs €15 one

gamgsam

Cellar_Door wrote: »

I'm trying to turn over a new leaf health-wise and to be as healthy as possible. I think I have some candida/yeast issues, which I want to get rid of.

Does the meat in Aldi or Lidl contain hormones, or nitrates (well, I know the bacon fillets do), or are they from livestock that are fed junk (corn etc)?

Specifically, I buy the turkey mince, some frozen beef, and some frozen fish (tuna and salmon).
I haven't bought the chicken in there ever since realising it tastes awful compared to Tesco chicken.

I'm a poor student, but I'm willing to pay extra for quality meats. Should I be looking for organic, and grass-fed meat? I'm a noobie to all this.

Does not compute... BOOM!

Mince, by nature of the reason behind its production, will never never never be of good quality, unless you mince it yourself.

Iristxo

brianthebard wrote: »

Yeah, cause vegetables are completely safe and 100% uncontaminated by anything. :rolleyes:

I hear the level of contamination in meat is exponentially higher than that in veg because apparently the hormones, antibiotics etc are a lot more harmful than the pesticides in the fruit and veg. I have read that and before anyone asks, I have no links and no proof (so I could very well be wrong).

El_Dangeroso

Corkcomp is right, there is no way of telling the exact quality of food unless you grow/rear it yourself.

In my opinion there are ways to hedge your bets though.

Irish grass finished organic beef/lamb bought direct from the farmer is the best, though obviously not always possible. There are a number of organic farms that you can drive to yourself and check out the exact details on how the animals are kept/fed. Game meats such as venison fall into this bracket too.

The next best would be Irish grass fed, probably finished with grain. This is what is sold in supermarkets/butchers as Irish quality assured beef/lamb. It has a much better fatty acid profile (higher in omega 3).

Chicken and pork is tricky, pastured is definitely better as the animals can forage for things that ultimately improve the fatty acid profile, but it seems that it's impossible to raise pigs or chicken without feeding them grain, so I base most of my meat requirements on beef and lamb.

One easy way to minimise harm from meat of dubious origin is to get the leanest cut and then add back in fat such as organic beef dripping or coconut oil when cooking.

Also, there are no antibiotics/growth hormone allowed in Irish meat at all.

If your gonna start worrying about what's in meat, I'd worry first about synthetic pesticides on vegetables or Bisphenol A in bottled water/canned goods or parabens in your shampoo.. I could go on..point being you can make yourself crazy with this stuff. Make an effort to buy Irish where possible (as far as I can see it is pretty much always possible), organic where affordable (it's probably the same nutritionally speaking but those pesticide residues are worth avoiding) and local if you can at all as the less time and effort the food takes to get to the table, the better.

Euro_Kraut

brianthebard wrote: »

I would have to look up figures from Farmers journal but I very much doubt most meet is Irish, certainly not from Lidl, Aldi seem to have made it a feature of their marketing in recent months/years. All the beef is definitely not Irish either.

I look at the packaging and see if the have the bord bia mark. Not sure why you would need to go to the Farmers Journal for this.

I shop there regularly and have never seen non Irish beef (i.e. fresh beef, frozen burgers like ever other supermarket comes from god knows where). What are you bassing your strong statement that is 'definitely is not'?

This might be some help to you: http://flip100.net/scripts/showbook.asp?ID=10000213_326157

All fresh mince, all steaks, all stewing beef is Irish.

banquet

corkcomp wrote: »

Unless you grow or rear your own food there will always be an element of the unknown. Personally I refuse to pay the huge premiums charged for organic meat and vegetables, I'm quite happy to eat a €5 chicken vs €15 one

Agreed, as a student I already spend far too much on food even tho I really do my best to shop around. At them same time Food, Inc really scared me, I can only hope and theres a different set of standards in Ireland.

brianthebard

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

I look at the packaging and see if the have the bord bia mark. Not sure why you would need to go to the Farmers Journal for this.

I shop there regularly and have never seen non Irish beef (i.e. fresh beef, frozen burgers like ever other supermarket comes from god knows where). What are you bassing your strong statement that is 'definitely is not'?

This might be some help to you: http://flip100.net/scripts/showbook.asp?ID=10000213_326157

All fresh mince, all steaks, all stewing beef is Irish.

That is very different to what you said originally, which was that all meat was Irish. Regardless, I still think that it is unlikely that all Lidl fresh beef is Irish, which was another one of your claims. I know that Aldi make a point of advertising their Irish beef, which I already noted, but I still would not expect all their meat or beef to be Irish. I would look at the Journal for info about this because that is one of the things they cover and I'm not going to go into two supermarkets with a notebook checking whether all the beef is Irish or not.

rasper

I find their milk to go off a lot quicker, I know it comes from the six counties so either its older or theres a poor job in storage and transportation

As for a €5 chicken, personally I wouldn't touch it and would prefer to go without any meat instead

GeckoOnTheWall

It would be miraculous for Aldi or LIDL to have the same quality standards as M&S or Tesco and charge prices they actually do.

Quality costs and there is no doubt about it.

I would recommend comparing any yogurt from LIDL with a Glenisk one. The former will contain up to 10 ingredients, including 1-2 sweeteners. God love people who eat them...

rubadub

rasper wrote: »

I find their milk to go off a lot quicker, I know it comes from the six counties so either its older or theres a poor job in storage and transportation

Some might view that as a good sign, it might not be heat treated as much. I worry when I see bread that does go off quickly.

GeckoOnTheWall

Almost all commercially available milk is pasteurised (except when specifically indicated). If it goes off quickly it's a sign of poor standards within the company which produces it as it basically means that the initial microbial load in milk was already high when the product was placed on the shelf.

lionela

Google......meet your meat .....and watch the videos...it will change you opinion on animal slaughter and the cruelty involved.

drakshug

GeckoOnTheWall wrote: »

It would be miraculous for Aldi or LIDL to have the same quality standards as M&S or Tesco and charge prices they actually do.

Quality costs and there is no doubt about it.

I would recommend comparing any yogurt from LIDL with a Glenisk one. The former will contain up to 10 ingredients, including 1-2 sweeteners. God love people who eat them...

Lidl sell Glanbia yogurts now

danbohan

rasper wrote: »

I find their milk to go off a lot quicker, I know it comes from the six counties so either its older or theres a poor job in storage and transportation

As for a €5 chicken, personally I wouldn't touch it and would prefer to go without any meat instead

prob them 6 counties cows , not the same as ours down here at all !

danbohan

lionela wrote: »

Google......meet your meat .....and watch the videos...it will change you opinion on animal slaughter and the cruelty involved.

yea , i saw a carrot been pulled from ground once , torn from the root it was , shocking cruelty altogether

GeckoOnTheWall

It's well known that animal rights are often abused during slaughter even in well-developed countries (like Ireland) which are obliged to stick to the current legislation, but often don't. It's a touchy subject for many people for many various reasons, but I wouldn't laugh at anybody who feels sorry for the animals. I do too.

Khannie

corkcomp wrote: »

Unless you grow or rear your own food there will always be an element of the unknown. Personally I refuse to pay the huge premiums charged for organic meat and vegetables, I'm quite happy to eat a €5 chicken vs €15 one

Have you any idea how the 5 euro one is raised? It's pretty horrible stuff. Can't justify the savings myself. A free range / no antibiotics chicken is 9 euro in my butchers.

goat2

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

Most of Aldi/LIDL meat is Irish. Just have a look at the label. The beef is all Irish for example.

Pork products with Seranno Ham and Bockwurst, obviously, or from abroad though.

read the lables, taking note of how they are phrased
would you buy
irish smoked salmon
or
smoked irish salmon

one on those tells you the actual salmon is not irish, just smoked here

corkcomp

Khannie wrote: »

Have you any idea how the 5 euro one is raised? It's pretty horrible stuff. Can't justify the savings myself. A free range / no antibiotics chicken is 9 euro in my butchers.

that was my point.. I know and im ok with it:cool:

moonflower

rasper wrote: »

I find their milk to go off a lot quicker, I know it comes from the six counties so either its older or theres a poor job in storage and transportation

Soon Aldi's milk will be supplied by Avanmore, so it should be the exact same as you get in Dunnes. I do agree with you though that the milk they currently have is a bit weird, I find it tastes kind of funny.

goat2

moonflower wrote: »

Soon Aldi's milk will be supplied by Avanmore, so it should be the exact same as you get in Dunnes. I do agree with you though that the milk they currently have is a bit weird, I find it tastes kind of funny.

i find their milk fine
but anyone know where they source the bread

Guy:Incognito

Iristxo wrote: »

I hear the level of contamination in meat is exponentially higher than that in veg because apparently the hormones, antibiotics etc are a lot more harmful than the pesticides in the fruit and veg. I have read that and before anyone asks, I have no links and no proof (so I could very well be wrong).

I hear it's the opposite. See anyone can do that.

Getwellsoon wrote: »

, I've seen vans arrive to one butchers near where I work and the raw meat is on the floor of the van. Gross!!

How do you know the floor of the van is dirty?

If I go out and buy a brand new toilet to drink soup from, is that disgusting just because the vessel I'm using is toilet shaped?


The vegtables you eat come from the ground where animals and insects will be crawling all over them , pissing and ****tign and whatnot.

ScouseMouse

A few years ago I worked for one of the two german discounters. During an inspection by dept of agri, I was told we had meat and poultry from 3 different countries.

I never had any reason to doubt the quality, but there was a serious problem with unrefrigerated trucks carrying the product. Nearly every chicken was stinking the day before its best before date. Instore, every shop had a walk in fridge. However, it regularly couldnt take the amount of pallets, or there was something in there already, so the stock was left in the general storeroom.

The cold chain was broken time and time again. While I was there, I would buy the fresh meat but only the items I would use that day.

El_Dangeroso

I highly recommend the movie 'Food Inc.', it will really motivate you to find out where your food comes from, and the days of me buying 3-5 euro battery chickens are long gone, despite having a pathetic student food budget. The shorter the chain of distribution between you and your food, the more nutritious, safe and sustainable it is likely to be. As Michael Pollan would say, you are what you eat eats.

Interesting that the biggest sources of food poisoning are not all meat-based too. Salad is one of the biggest carriers of bacteria, ice-cream from a van is also really high on the list, even incorrectly re-heated rice is in the top ten causes of food poisoning.

Macha

Yep, it's definitely quality over quantity for me. By rights, a lot of the worst practices should be banned through animal welfare laws.

Buying caged chicken eggs is a crying shame when the difference in cost with a box of free range ones is often less than €1

goat2

taconnol wrote: »

Yep, it's definitely quality over quantity for me. By rights, a lot of the worst practices should be banned through animal welfare laws.

Buying caged chicken eggs is a crying shame when the difference in cost with a box of free range ones is often less than €1

i buy eggs local
i know the farm they come off
and i know from seeing for myself that they are free range
i also buy from local buthchers, i also know the farms my meat come from
i have never ever bought aldi or lidl meat, as i do not know the line from start to finish. we have a far stricter regeime here as what is injected into our animals, that helps
i do buy the milk
i question the bread, would like to know where that come from, is it baked in ireland or overeseas,

El_Dangeroso

taconnol wrote: »

Buying caged chicken eggs is a crying shame when the difference in cost with a box of free range ones is often less than €1

I'm not too judgemental about what other people buy, usually they are buying the best they can afford, except when it comes to eggs. Really, there is no excuse that I can think of to not spend 10c extra an egg to get free range, or even better 20c more for pastured and organic.

Khannie

corkcomp wrote: »

that was my point.. I know and im ok with it:cool:

Do you really know though? I mean *really*. Like, you see the ammonia burns on the chicken you're about to eat, understand where they came from and why and you're ok with that? Not a loaded question.

corkcomp

Khannie wrote: »

Do you really know though? I mean *really*. Like, you see the ammonia burns on the chicken you're about to eat, understand where they came from and why and you're ok with that? Not a loaded question.

While I can see where you are trying to go, you would have more chance selling ice cubes to eskimos :pac:

Macha

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

I'm not too judgemental about what other people buy, usually they are buying the best they can afford, except when it comes to eggs. Really, there is no excuse that I can think of to not spend 10c extra an egg to get free range, or even better 20c more for pastured and organic.

I try not to be but the reality of how agriculture is structured in Ireland means we pay very little for our chicken and meat, far less than it costs to produce it. The animal welfare and environmental implications suggest we eat too much meat and we go for quantity over quality. There's no way our meat-eating habits would be sustainable if replicated world wide.