Has M&S food quality dropped?

[Thewiseoneincognito]

This is a weird one but I’ve started to notice over the last couple of months the taste and quality of Marks and Spencer’s food items has really lowered a lot. Has any one else?

I’ve had a few of their ready meals recently with huge chunks of chewy beef in that clearly hasn’t been cut properly, sounds ok but it just looks gross and is usually big boobs of fatty gristle. I found a large sharp piece of flint in a mushroom dish, a piece of blue plastic film in one of their soups. Their sandwiches seem to have stale bread despite being well before the end date. Usually I can let the odd thing slide and put it down to once in a blue moon but it seems to be a regular occurrence.

Before anyone says shop elsewhere, it’s my local food hall, the alternative is a tiny Tesco or Sainsbury’s, great if you need snacks or milk but not exactly the type of store to do a food shop.

M&S has always been a better standard of prepared food compared to others but now I’m doubting they’re any different than regular supermarket offerings. The range of foods seems to have been cut too like they’re no longer bothering to innovate, just churning out the same old but with lower quality control.

I have noticed a drop in quality both from Tesco and Lidl. Mouldy vegetables, meat that's off, even dry fruit! Was wondering if it might have anything to do with Brexit and goods bring delayed at customs?
The other day I popped into M&S for some clotted cream and noticed that the few customers in there were all women over 60. Who will M&S sell to when they are gone?

Not a drop in quality, more a total disappearance - liver (I have iron deficiency). Always have it from M & S as much better quality. They haven’t had any for several weeks. I managed to corner a manager who seemed to think Brexit was the problem.

So in an eight hour shift if you pack 10 different things it is all this palaver everytime .the only thing you dont do is change your wellies between different lines .

@aprilanne

I worked for them in a food factory and a few years ago they were squeezing there suppliers to get everything the cheapest they could The potatoes are frozen for about 6 months before they are sorted for likes of paramenters roast potatoes the likes .they were still frozen as we handled them .in there defense .the hygiene is so stringent .it takes about 15 minutes to get to your station....go in take off your shoes put on blue covers tie up hair put on two hair nets and disposable balaclava .dont put feet on dirty side swing over legs ..go get wellies go get overall .wash hands go into area wash hands again go into line wash hands again .put on disposable pinny gloves and gauntlet all different colours for different meals . And if they dealing with nuts it's a totally different factory so if they say mo nuts they not kidding. Even delivery drivers can go between nut and nut that's free sites never mind employees. No paper work nothing. That is really what you paying for and the fact is actually packed by hand .when you see 12 pomegranate seeds in a dish or a small bit coriander someone has actually put that on by hand .

Um ... yes, if you notice, it's normal for packaging to state whether something is nut free, or packed in a factory where they pack nuts. No, they're not kidding.

I don't think you pay extra for M&S abiding by the basics!

The M&S and Ocado merger has been a disaster, as soon as there is a M&S own brand option they stop selling all alternatives, and the M&S products are just not good. Not talking about ready meals but their double cream, some cheeses and so on. Just not nice products.

No, I still think their fruit and veg beats everybody else’s (well maybe apart from Abel and Cole but the cost is crazy), I love M&S rye bread and dozens of other things.
We don’t eat that much meat but we like their free range stuff.
We’re happy with it and happy they’re on Ocado.

Yes true they all should but some just on side of legal I assure you most dont have there factories miles apart .most just have a different shed on the main site .

I’m glad it’s not just me then.

It seems meat is pretty poor across the board at the moment, perhaps I need a decent local butcher.

I always look at the food through the film especially ready meals and have noticed a lot are swimming in liquid (water?) more often than not especially the Count on Us range.

Hopefully things improve soon.

Some as PP I've always thought it was shit quality anyway. Far too processed and salty. And over-priced.

I use Ocado and they changed partner from waitrose to M&S last autumn. I'm not at all impressed by M&S.

Agree with PP that the chicken thigh fillets always have shards of bone in them.

I've noticed issues with other supermarkets. The Sainsbury's £2 seeded sourdough loaf from their bakery has shrunk by a third in the last couple of months. Whereas the price is the same.

I'm just fed up of finding something lovely that we go to get again , to find it's no longer stocked. This happens a lot.
As to their quality, I'm inclined to agree with you with regards to their ready meals.
We sometimes have their 'dine in ' range but we haven't partaken for a while now. It often involves pasta and is quite claggy else it's just big standard food eg cod and chips.
Their fresh stuff is lovely but it's hard to pay twice as much for a chicken or a joint which doesn't taste much different from Tesco's or similar.

I only buy cakes from M&S, so can't comment on their ready meals, but have noticed a huge drop off in quality in Tesco and a slight drop in quality in Waitrose.

Tesco Finest lasagne is now so watery that it's like some weird soup with sheets of pasta in. I used to like their quiche, but that now tastes of next to nothing. They've even managed to fuck up their doughnuts, and their meat (which hasn't been especially good for years) is appalling - fatty, gristly and lacking in flavour. Whichever supermarket I buy fruit and veg in, it seems to go off really quickly.

Sainsburys seems to have had less of a fall in quality than the other 2 I use, but I fear it may only be a matter of time. Thankfully, we have a good butcher in town, but we don't have a greengrocer. The nearest greengrocer is 10 miles away, so I sometimes pay exorbitant farm shop prices, as the farm shop is no further than Tesco.

I'm getting thoroughly hacked off with it, tbh.

Another Ocado shopper here, and we've started booking click and collect at Waitrose. Our grocery shop has gone from around £150 a week to £200 most of the time, and there's not enough difference in the food to justify it. We never had issues with Waitrose for quality.

I think Ocado may well end up regretting the change, tbh.

I don't generally shop in M&S but had a couple of packs of different types of Hot cross buns from there recently m, bother were great.
I shop online with five other supermarkets and haven't had a problem with them either, everything the same quality it's always been and good availability too, the odd substitute or missing item, but no different from before Covid.

@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil

Probably two things:

1. They now sell via Ocado and maybe standards have dropped to meet demand.

1. Brexit. Bought steak last week and noticed it had come from Turkey. I’ve never noticed that before.

Agree. What I'm getting on my Ocado order doesn't reflect the M&S of old. Lots of things are pretty shite tbh.

@Oly4

No, I still think their fruit and veg beats everybody else’s (well maybe apart from Abel and Cole but the cost is crazy), I love M&S rye bread and dozens of other things. We don’t eat that much meat but we like their free range stuff. We’re happy with it and happy they’re on Ocado.

I agree with you that the fruit and veg is still of a very high quality. I used M&S veg for Xmas dinner this year and thought it was outstanding.

However I agree with the others that the quality of their meat, fish, dairy, ready meals and processed goods have declined since the Ocado move.

It’s shite, as far as my Ocado orders go. Miss Waitrose from Ocado. Now have to do an Ocado order (for all the great small producers they stock) plus a Waitrose click and collect for decent veg and other basics that M&S can’t seem to provide at an even adequate quality.

I’d disagree strongly on the veg side of things when coming via Ocado. M&S veg is seriously awful. Small, passed its best, very poor.

I've found most meat and poultry products now contain chickpea flour or pea fibre which gives the meat / chicken an odd taste. My DH suffers from a legume allergy and there was no signage or label update highlighting these changes on items we regularly bought so we found out the hard way when he went into anaphylaxis.

The Christmas range was so disappointing so will be looking elsewhere this year.

Perhaps it is the Ocado move. I wonder if they have changed suppliers or processes to accommodate the shift? As I said, it’s the last six months I’ve started to notice the problems.

They screwed around with their Mushroom Papadelle recipe too so now it just tastes bland.

😭 I wish I could / had the inclination to cook.

Yes their chicken is just gross now.

I haven’t noticed any change. I love their food, especially their biscuits. Yum yum.

@Crazycatstory

I’d disagree strongly on the veg side of things when coming via Ocado. M&S veg is seriously awful. Small, passed its best, very poor.

I do agree with you on the small veg thing though. I’m often surprised with how small the sizes or quantities of veg are for the price. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky with the quality and I’m about to see a rapid decline like the rest of their products.