To think that the 'best' ranges in supermarkets..

[Joysmum]

...are actually akin to how food used to be 30 years ago and the standard of our food has dropped considerably?

I'm thinking meat here in particular, not Findus Crispy Pancakes which always been shit, although have shrunk.

It certainly amazes me that anyone buys some of the crappy meat in supermarkets. I was looking for a bit of steak the other day, for a special meal, and checked through every pack looking for any that didn't have huge amounts of gristle in it. I sometimes wonder if the 'butchers' who prepare the packs are in fact vegetarians who don't actually eat the stuff so can't tell how unappetising it is.

And don't get me started on the cubed steak for casseroles - putting gristly meat through an industrial chopping machine doesn't make for nice casseroles!

Totally agree muminscotland about the quality of meat. Especially the cubed casserole steak - it's just awful. And the prices, considering the dubious quality, piss me off no end. I don't buy chicken breasts from supermarkets any more because they're so crazily dear.
I'm really, really tempted to see if I can make august a butchers/farm shop only month and just eat less meat.

The meat I get from the butchers looks so different to meat from Supermarkets, which is always a bright red and looks manufactured. I don't know what they do to it to make it look like that.

Davsmum

they pump the packaging with oxygen and take out the carbon dioxide.. this makes the meat look redder and fresher and makes it last longer.

Trouble - thats interesting. I never knew that.

Supermarket food is hugely unappealing nowadays. Quality has dropped, especially in fruit & veg. I don't eat meat. Reading the chicken thing in the paper last week, I don't know how folk haven't already done the maths. Four sweaty chicken breasts wrapped in cellophane for 1.99? No ta!
Finest ranges are a con. I find the value stuff better as there's less ingredients, therefore less rubbish in them.

Our local butcher does a great deal and it works out only marginally more expensive than the supermarket. The meat is far superior.

OP, YANBU

The basic range chicken breasts are about 30% chicken 70% water. They pump them up to make them look huge in comparison to the real meat in the finest range.

I hate the ready diced meat for casseroles. Its full of fat, sinew and gristle. By the time I've taken all that out there's hardly any meat left. I just buy a roasting joint as it works out cheaper and it tastes much better.

YANBU. Tomatos are another example of this.

I'm lucky to live by an excellent farm shop.

I completely agree, OP, it is one of my pet hates- meat that won't sizzle, like bacon, but instead streams with watery white stuff and then boils in it (whatever it is).

Whenever I see a thread on obesity/eating well and people talk about cooking from scratch, I think about my experiences cooking mince from scratch (and I don't buy the cheap one) and then wonder if people really think this stuff is healthy as it is 'from scratch'. Ditto cheap chicken, I bought one recently and just gave up trying to eat it, the meat was grey and weird tasting, it was in date, just vile and cheap.

I used to buy very nice meat from an organic supplier, it was expensive but the quality was just amazing in comparison with supermarket meat (the worst is Co-op, how they get their bacon to look like that on the adverts I just don't know it's false advertising). As you say though, it's not really amazing, it's what meat is like if you don't pump it full of hormones when the animal is alive and then pump it up with water and sugar once it's dead.

I can't wait to get rich enough to go back to that organic meat box!

Omg, thenapoleonofcrime YES! Cannot bear watching that vile vile white liquid stream out from meat I'm trying to brown. Crap chicken is another example of that!
Right. My mind is made up. I get paid tomorrow and (when my bloody car is fixed!!) I'm going to invest £40 at the farm shop for a month's worth of good quality meat. I'm thinking: chicken breasts, pork chops, sausages, beef skirt/shin...

Oh and has anyone every eaten a carrot straight from the ground and noticed how flavoursome it is compared to the ones you buy in the supermarkets?

4 chicken breaks for £1.99?! Where do you shop?!

Breasts*

I decided last weekend I have had it with Sainsbury's smoked bacon, its full of water, that bubbles and boils when you try to grill it. No more supermarket bacon!

I would agree that food standards have dropped hugely in favour of profits and corporate interest.

I would not agree that the 'best' ranges are in any way superior, as they are full of added salt, sugar, weird freak ingredients...

Sainsbury's best cherry tomatoes are grown in salt-water to give them the flavour. 'Best' meat is still modified with hormones.

I actually avoid all branded goods where I can (Local veg and fish market for me)

Actually I haven't a clue how much chicken costs now. Haven't bought it in years!
Agree about tomatoes. Won't buy anything grown in Holland.

IME, Tesco is the worst culprit - the vast majority of their produce tastes watery and I stopped buying their meat ages ago, as it's just vile.

We get an organic box for fruit and vegetable, but I keep saying that Morrisons' meat is decent and their fish counter is the best of all large surface supermarkets. I eat a lot of fish and I can get entire octopus, monkfish, squid and great lemon sole from them.

YANBU, the finest/posh ranges are just (massively overpriced) semi-edible food compared to the other shite they sell.

I bought some steak the other day (rarely eat it) and it was full of grisle, chewy and disgusting. When I cooked it, it kind of stewed in its own juice rather than frying properly so I can only assume it was pumped full of water to make up the weight too.

Fruit in the supermarket is never ripe and when you try to ripen it at home it goes from rock hard to mush within a day. Even the 'best' range fruit which is 'ready and ripe' is often not ripe and you end up paying £3 for 4 pears.

I think you're right OP, I was thinking this morning when I saw a thing on the news about people not eating their 5 a day, I'm not surprised most of the stuff that is easy and affordable to buy is tasteless and mushy --- gross!

I honestly don't understand why anyone buys supermarket meat, it's terrible.

The consumer has to take some of the blame here don't they?

Decades of customers clamouring for cheaper food and voting with their feet - straight through the door of the supermarkets where cheap goods are available.

And I'm not blameless here - it's too convenient and I'm lazy to just do the "one-stop shop" thing.

I do try to use the smaller independents when I can but they are being squeezed out by the bigger supermarkets - because people are shopping there instead.

I am going to try to get to our local (very excellent) butcher more often than I do though!