aldi meat- to question??

[sugar4eva]

Was reading the supermarket snobbery post in aibu.

Some posts seemed to indicate that they think that Sainsburys is higher quality food than ,say,Aldi.

I had been thinking that perhaps seeing as Aldi had been voted as supermarket of the year ,then the quality must be ok cf to others...
Now its got me thinking - have i not been thinking this through properly..???.

.Re Meat ..One the one hand was thinking it would be good quality- re non uk meat -welfare issue aside- as some of produce is from regions it is traditonally produced such as german ham,salami etc.Thats one issue - could this be correct?

.Re the actual production of the british meat welfare wise Re Tractor aldi farm assured meat- a poster on the supermarket snobbery thread seemed to be saying that cheaper supermarket sold low quality meat.Ive been under impression that the Re Tractor logo meant good quality and/ or decent/higher welfare??

Thinking this through it must be impossible to buy meat for so cheap if it is in fact quality and /or higher welfare.It says Red Tractor "ASSURED"- think ive been falling for a false reassurment?? I took it to mean decent welfare in production-this logo has sort of led me along that thought route and i need to get real ???.!The free range chicken is only £ 4.99- surley that got to be good welfare ??? .

I would rather get higher welfare meat ,and eat less of it to afford it, and feel rather embarassed that in my busyness Id assumed "assured" meant ok welfare.

Feel i will be slated for ignorance - well am certainley slating self!!!

Does this also meant that " NORMAL " Sainsburys meat is not high welfare and that only organic and freedom food is decent welfare in supermarkets???

Will check out local butchers.I know the animals dont get transported far but i dont know how if they have been bred under good conditions . ..tracable meat etc

Red tractor = farmed in UK to legal minimum standards
No red tractor = farmed overseas to whatever standards apply there (usually poorer than UK)
Waitrose, M&S and co-op generally all have high level farming standards (red teactor or above) for own brand meat
Sainsbury's standards are also reasonable for own brand (usually red tractor or above)
Tesco, asda etc may use meat from overseas suppliers in own brand products, or red tractor (check labels)
Also, lidl = stock some red tractor products and some overseas (check labels)
RSPCA freedom foods product = high welfare

I had always assumed that, as they were German, the Continental meats were going to be good. I buy the red tractor meat.

Thankyou for clarification! I think the jolly red tractor image had inplied to my grey matter it was high welfare rather than minimum n standard ; so it's a shopping sea change for us !

Having taken labelling into consideration, I don't agree you get what you pay for, my local sainsburys has a management suite with managers and PA's then dept managers. Lots of staff stack shelves, it is very inefficient compared to aldi, you are paying for that.

In the uk our pigs are farmed at a much much much higher welfare standard than the continent.
We also vaccinated our chickens against salmonella (so eggs and chickens safe).
Tescos meat I find their chicken tough, tasteless almost slimey. If you compare the colour of a sainsburys chicken breast and tesco it's totally different to each other. They have improved recently (in line with a noticeable price increase).
I think the quality is fine of aldi /lidl meat and think the saving is down to lack of range rather than quality.
I'd sooner get it from my (cheaper) local butcher but that's more of a keeping that 60p local in every £1

If you go onto the the individual supermarket websites they explain their grading.

There are various "ethical reviews" of products, one is called "the ethical supermarket" which reviews all products, such as Mayo (Heinz scored the best) and the cheese used on pizza (it is something you don't think about when ordering a takeaway).

I was Vegetarian, but then realised I was putting animal welfare before child labour and world poverty etc so became vegan.

I think everyone should do some simple research as to why conditions around the world are what they are, I wrongly thought it was environmental.

I couldn't justify worrying about chickens whilst people died to produce chocolate, or feed for cows, just so they were treated well, tbh.

I am a member of various Vegan and Vegetarian societies, we get up to date videos of how standards are not kept to, so I wouldn't sacrifice any more of your budget, just buy less unethical products, tbh (if you care about human welfare as well, that is).

I used to feel smug about buying free range eggs whilst not buying fair traded tea, for example (I drink less tea and buy Clipper).

You can still care about ethics, fair trade, and organic standards whilst not being vegan, though.

And yes, I understand all the underlying issues with animal products, but I pick my battles.

I stopped being veggie partly as I felt veggie was for me opting out of issues and buying ethical products including high welfare meat votes with yr purse for a good life for person and creature . I sort of felt it creates a positive demand rather than leave it to who ever to buy meat someone whom may not care re its sorce at least buying good meat I'm voting for a good life on my view. It's all personal choice etc and thankyou all I need to do more resaerch but for a start am go get meat from local butcher for now and eat less as its more£ understandably .