To send this email to Annabel Karmel foods

[lisaro]

Hi, I bought my nephew one of your child size shepherds' pies. I luckily tasted it before I was going to it to him. The level of sweetness was completely unneccessary. The meat used was of very poor quality with lots of gristly lumps, including one half an inch long. I wouldn't buy food of that low quality for myself, let alone a child. Please can you explain this?

I felt that if I didn't give dd AK food something bad would happen. well I did and she is a litte fusspot and I had a stressy time. I do however rather enjoy her chicken and apple balls. they are yummy!

GF makes me feel the same way so I am not exclusively irritated by AK

Why on earth would a shepards pie contain bones? Isn't minced beef or lamb used to make it?

Careful ladies - she'll be suing MN if we're not careful.

I don't have much to say about her, other than her recipes are overly complicated (I have two of her books and can't be arsed to make anything in them) and often have salt and sugar added in which I just don't think is necessary for toddlers.

I just give DD what we're eating (no salt/sugar obv.) and she's made it through to 2.5. If nothing available that's freshly made, I give her fish fingers, mash and peas as my back up dinner.

No, Bananas - in this case just gristle.

Sorry what I mean is,why on earth would shepards pie contain bones in the noral flow of things?

Mmmmm gristle pie,yummy.

I knew what you meant,. Banana, and agree. It's probably because they know they're using such poor quality meat that they can't guarantee what will be in it that shouldn't.

I wouldn't like to take that risk. The idea that there could be bits of bone in it makes me

Just to update; I've not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement yet, let alone a reply.

"I would like to point out that on the film on the top of said shepherds pie it says "may contain small bones" " WHAT?? I have never seen that on a meaty thing (buckshot in rabbit maybe). It makes me wonder about the quality of the meat (is it that muck they water blast of old bones?).

Oh dear Annabel... I get the impression she is popular in the US - is that the case? I want to like her, as anyone who is pushing home-made foods (although she does do the ready made now, boo), and getting kids to cook can't be all that bad, but I can't warm to her for some reason. I get the impression that she isn't all that nice, although I don't know any different. Maybe its just the way she comes across.

I find she gets a perfectly good recipe then adds something extra (sugar, honey, soya sauce... "for taste/sweetness, etc. I'd rather children got the taste for unsweetened or over-flavoured foods, so that they can appreciate good ingredients, well cooked, interesting, and properly seasoned.

Ok,. I've had a response; (note; personal details changed)

Dear Lisaro,

We are very sorry to hear about your recent experience with the shepherd?s pie and want to thank you for bringing this to my attention.

We consider the safety and satisfaction of our customers to be paramount, and we have referred your letter to Pro-Pak Foods Ltd who sources this product for us.

Before selecting a supplier to work with us, we ensure that they have in place stringent quality control systems to ensure high levels of safety and customer-satisfaction in the food products they supply, and, due to the nature of your complaint we have specifically asked Pro-Pak Foods Ltd to respond to you direct.

For your convenience, the contact details of Pro-Pak Foods Ltd are as follows:

Details here removed

I have also copied Alastair into this email to ensure he deals with your complaint as a matter of priority.

We do hope this can be resolved to your satisfaction, and once again thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Rob
Annabel Karmel Group Holdings Ltd

Annabel Karmel snacks/meals are all full of stuff that puts me off even buying them. Same as Heinz. Sugar is an ingredient listed quite high on most I've come across.

Update, I received this and answered as below (personal details omitted or amended);

FAO Ms Lisaro. Good morning. I head up the Food Safety and Quality
team at Pro-Pak Foods, where we carefully prepare the Cottage Pie (not
Shepherd's Pie) on behalf of Annabel Karmel. I'm sorry you have had cause
to complain about a recent purchase - we take lots of precautions to ensure
that these meals are ideal for this tender age group.
Are you able to send me the use by date off the packaging so that I can
investigate this and interview the team who prepared the meal ? Could you
also please send me your postal address so that I can write to you with a
summary of my findings. Apologies for the added inconvenience and also for
your disappointment with the meal.
Regards

(Details)

And mine;

Hello (Name)

I'm afraid the outer wrapper went straight into the dustbin - all I have is the scraped empty inner black tray which I've kept the largest gristle lump in, in my freezer. If it's any help it was bought on Saturday 28th April at Morrisons supermarket in Bradford. I hope this helps because I am very concerned at the quality of this food intended for a child.
If this isn't the normal standard and you can trace it with the information I'm able to give then my address for the summary is;

If you can't help then I would appreciate if you would also contact me to let me know.

Regards, Lisaro.