How is Lidl meat quality compared with Tesco, and what to buy?

[Username37891]

Meat from Lidl-is it any good?

Ive shopped at Lidl for years but bought pur meat from Tesco beliebing it is "better quality". I can't afford it any more. So tell me, how do you find the LIDL meat and what do you recommend?

Tia

I think it’s great and would choose lidl meat over tesco/sainsburys. Also love their lightly smoked salmon which is cheaper than sainsburys. Massive lidl fan despite being admittedly apprehensive at first.

I buy all my meat from Lidl and it's always been great quality.
I really like their mixed beef and pork mince - great for making meatballs.

We don’t eat loads of meat but what we’ve had from Lidl has been good, and much better in terms of taste and value than Tesco

I think Aldi and Lidl chicken is way better than Tesco’s. I find Tesco’s chicken has a load of water in it and I have to keep draining water out of the frying pan!

I find them to be similar quality and buy from either depending on where I am. The only thing I do only get from Tesco is their beef mince because I hate cooking with the vacuum packed one from Lidl.

The Lidl grass fed beef mince is superb.

Overall I prefer Aldi but both Lidl and Aldi sell mainly British meat which is important to me, I like to support British farmers and never buy imported meat.
Quality wise very good. Their free range chicken is always in stock unlike Tesco or Sainsbury's.

I am a huge fan of all things Lidl. Their meat is as good as Tesco. I second @RaraRachael, their mixed beef and pork mince is great. We make bolognaise and chilli with it.

Love it! We buy the beef mince and the corn fed chickens.

I like that they have British meat as standard as Tesco has a lot of Danish pork with poor animal welfare standards.

I love Lidl, so this isn't to do them down. The only meat I buy is chicken breast fillets, and for ages I got it in Lidl because it was cheaper. But I started to notice last year that the quality wasn't that good, so one day I bought the equivalent while I was in Sainsburys. It was a definite improvement in taste and texture, so I decided I would pay the extra each week (compared to Lidl). But the following week I was in Tesco when I realised I had forgotten to get the chicken while I was in Sainsburys, which is on the other side of town, so I tried the breast fillets from Tesco instead. Since that day I always buy chicken in Tesco because I genuinely noticed the quality compared with both Lidl and Sainsburys. So far I haven't been disappointed.

Also last year, I started to notice the use by date on Lidl salmon fillets isn't helpful, whereas with Tesco salmon fillets the window is shorter but it smells and tastes perfectly fresh right up to the last minute. So I've stuck with that, although in the last few weeks it has shot up in price and I don't feel easy about that.

But there's still loads of Lidl stuff that I genuinely prefer compared to other shops and it's usually my first port of call whenever I'm doing the shopping. In many respects I only go to the other supermarkets to fill in what I can't get in Lidl, or, as with the chicken and salmon, prefer.

Oh wow.....thanks all! Sounds like I am in for a treat!

I am a Lidl person and do 90% of my shopping there and only go to other supermarkets for the things I cannot get at Lidl, so it is not a post to slag them off. I have bought all my meat from Lidl for years and the quality has always been very good.
However, in the last several months have noticed the decline in the quality of their chicken breasts. The ones they sell now are massive and recently all have a lot of bloody bits on them so I end up cutting a lot of meat off. I have started buying chicken breasts elsewhere. It may be a local issue though and other areas may have better chicken.
Other Lidl meat is still good and their deluxe cod is far better than in any other supermarkets.

I work in the meat industry and the bulk of meat in this country is from the EU and beyond. There is very little meat production in the UK.

British welfare standards aren't what people think they are.

@juldan I agree about the chicken breasts. They used to do a pack of 3 which were all of a similar size. Now there are 2 massive ones and one tiny one.

Lidl is generally a bit better in my experience. I had a steak from Tesco recently that had started to go off - tasted of fish. I had to throw it away. Also chicken breasts from Tesco that were so tough as to be inedible, even the cats didn't want them. Never had that from Lidl. Conversely, I've had Lidl veg that's past its best but Tesco veg is always fresh.

Lidl whole chicken is way bettet than asda and tesco imho. Half of it doesn't dissappear when cooking!

Lidl steaks are amazing. We've had all types and they were usually about £12 for 2 instead of around £15 each from the butcher.

Exactly. So it's hard to find British pork in Tesco. British standards have a lot of room for improvement, I agree, but Denmark is only just starting to reduce how long sows can be in farrowing crates.

No issues at all, I actually find it better than Tesco because there is usually more British meat there. I’ll usually go for the “deluxe” options which is way better value than Tesco finest etc

Both are terrible, particularly Tesco who have decided to put things like potato starch in their beef joints.