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.

TBH I have never been over impressed with M&S food quality but I agree that it does seem to have declined recently, especially the fruit and veg. Similarly Waitrose's sizes and portions have shrunk alarmingly.

@ThatsNotTheTeaHunty

Yes their chicken is just gross now.

Yep this. I’ve noticed a decline in their sirloin and fillet steak as well. I swear it tasted better last Autumn at the start of the Ocado move. I really miss Waitrose.

I have never bought a lot of M&S food, just a few things that were nice from time to time, I found it was mostly over salted, especially the bread but may have changed since they were leaving it out to be breathed on and I no longer bought it anyway.

I noticed in the last year or so that the items that had sauces, there was a mushroom pasta that was nice, had changed to a disgusting slime instead of a creamy sauce, no longer buy that and it used to be my favourite.

Similar with the meals of salmon with vegetables, new potatoes are foul, taste of earth and have black spots and creatures in, the other veg is very hit and miss in those too. If you avoid the rank potatoes and go for the mash that is also disgusting.

Beef casserole thing with dumplings, so salty, and over flavoured with heaven knows what.

M&S has always been over priced, now it is overpriced and rubbish at the same time.

Our Morrisons is, however, better than it used to be.

M and H hot cross buns are the best, so soft and last ages.
However yes their meat has gone down hill, had that awful woody chicken which puts me off ever eating chicken again tbh, also their best ever burgers which were disgusting and had lumps of sinew and gristle in them.
Like another poster has said it’s putting me off eating meat also and a, increasingly trying to think of meat free alternatives.

Seems the same to me but I don't eat meat

We just stick to lidl now, have been pretty disappointed with both Sainsbury's and Waitrose (only other convenient supermarkets) lidl isn't perfect but it's cheap and very close by so I shop every 2-3 days (shelf life isn't good enough for longer)

@GloriaSilver

M and H hot cross buns are the best, so soft and last ages. However yes their meat has gone down hill, had that awful woody chicken which puts me off ever eating chicken again tbh, also their best ever burgers which were disgusting and had lumps of sinew and gristle in them. Like another poster has said it’s putting me off eating meat also and a, increasingly trying to think of meat free alternatives.

Makes me wonder if that’s the secret plan, slowly degrade meat standards so we prefer the meat free alternatives to the real thing. It’s certainly working! At this rate I’ll be living off crumpets.

Chicken has definitely become grotesque, perhaps it’s all the factory farming methods coming home to roost, literally. It’s the knotty chunks that I can’t stand. I always thought my sister was over exaggerating whenever she described Tesco chicken as being grey and smelling rotten- until we tried one ourselves. 🤢

Since lockdown I've bought less but better quality and cook from scratch. Oddly enough I've bought better quality veg at Tesco's than the market.

I think Waitrose is better quality for sure.

M&S quality and also availability has nose dived.

I've thrown so much in date food away recently because it is off. Mouldy prawns, mouldy chicken, salad mix, stir fry mix. I had a bag of pears delivered which were mouldy (every single one had mould!) and the same thing with grapes and peaches. All well within date. I started to think it was my fridge not working, but happened with lots of food that doesn't go in the fridge too. I feel like quality has been cut across the board

I haven’t noticed a decline at M&S quality wise. I do agree that the range is maybe a bit tired. I don’t go there and feel inspired by what I see. I go there for meat and fruit mainly as it’s far better than Aldi and Tesco which are my other nearest shops.

I cannot use Ocado anymore. The prices are insane.

I shop there weekly and haven't noticed a decline although there's sometimes the odd thing. We had some lamb mince a while back that wasn't at its best and the odd bit of fruit. On the whole far better than Tesco, where the meat seems to go bad 3 days before it's use by date.

Don't use Ocado so maybe the delivery stuff comes from somewhere else? The dates in store annoy me sometimes, you have to time it right to get more than a few days on some fresh products.

There is definately something going on with supermarket fruit and veg. Growing up we could keep root vegetables fresh in the cupboard for weeks. Now I always feel in a rush to use them within 48 hours before they grow fur or turn to slime!

I’ve never rated their ready meals over most supermarkets at least their bog standard ones. What I did notice was meat quality I always bit the bag of fresh chicken fillets and they were always better quality than other supermarket packs. Recently the chicken texture hasn’t been right maybe too hard or something weird just not very tasty. Been buying them in Sainsbury recently. Nice soft tasty texture.

Just reading the threads yes knotty chicken that’s a better way to describe . Glad it’s not just me being weird !

There has been a real decline. It’s like they aren’t even trying any more.

I only buy meat from my local butcher now. I know where it's from and it tastes of meat. Supermarket meat is all just grim now. The quality has plummeted, even if you buy free range / organic

It’s definitely much worse than it used to be. Even their sandwiches are horrible now. Portion sizes of everything in the supermarkets have shrunk and the prices increased. It’s a total rip off.
Sainsbury’s food is inferior to what it used to be too. Everything is tasteless. Fruit and veg have no flavour. Meat tastes tired and not particularly fresh.
I am buying much more from butchers and organic suppliers . Recently for a fruit and veg box from an organic farm delivered. It tastes unbelievably better than organic produce from the supermarket. I am also finding veg going off or going mouldy when still in date from the supermarket much more frequently.

@GoLightlyontheEarth

It’s definitely much worse than it used to be. Even their sandwiches are horrible now. Portion sizes of everything in the supermarkets have shrunk and the prices increased. It’s a total rip off. Sainsbury’s food is inferior to what it used to be too. Everything is tasteless. Fruit and veg have no flavour. Meat tastes tired and not particularly fresh. I am buying much more from butchers and organic suppliers . Recently for a fruit and veg box from an organic farm delivered. It tastes unbelievably better than organic produce from the supermarket. I am also finding veg going off or going mouldy when still in date from the supermarket much more frequently.

That’s a good shout. I think I’m going to be using my local butchers now too. There’s not much difference in price anymore and the quality at the butcher is superior. Besides, I’d like to support some local businesses more in this time if I can.

I’ve also noticed that M&S have massively scaled down their selections for lunches too in their lunch to go section. Much less choice of drinks, pasta, sandwiches, salads etc and what remains isn’t as good quality. It used to be almost an entire aisle at my local M&S but now it’s like two shelves of uninspiring stuff.

I think M &S sandwiches are worse. I remember their prawn sandwiches as being better but maybe everyone else upped their game. Tesco stopped selling a few of my favourite quality items like their high almond content marzipan. Sainsbury used to be better quality when it started too.

Yes, I agree

They also used to be much more innovative and regularly come out with new and exciting products. Now all they do is add fancy new packing to their current ranges, so nothing new aside from the font choice 🙄

I’m finding Sainsbury’s more interesting, they have plenty of hidden gems.

I’ve also noticed that M&S have massively scaled down their selections for lunches

Yes! I used to spend hundreds just grabbing food to go. I’m hoping as more people return to the office, they bring back their discontinued lines and widen their selection again. I miss when they had limited edition sandwiches

Yeah the ready meals have gone downhill. And the dry-cured ham has just this evening ended up out of the window for the local fox along with her usual boiled egg and piece of cheese (she had no complaints but interestingly ate the egg and and the cheese then quite reluctantly took the ham )

And I agree about the ready meals but not just M&S. I had a chicken hot pot from Waitrose recently that was mostly Pearl barely to pad or out. It was like pottage, with a few slimy chunks of gristly chicken that I didn’t want to eat (the Fox got those too come to think of it)

@wingsnthat

Yes, I agree

They also used to be much more innovative and regularly come out with new and exciting products. Now all they do is add fancy new packing to their current ranges, so nothing new aside from the font choice 🙄

I’m finding Sainsbury’s more interesting, they have plenty of hidden gems.

It’s not even nice new packaging either 😆 some days I go in there and it just depresses me how bland and dull it all looks now. Sainsbury’s do have a good selection of independent niche brands for their ready meals- maybe M&S need to do that too instead of having twenty different iterations of cottage pie, lasagne and Chicken tikka.

Whether it’s best ever, count on us, Italian, takeaway with rice, take away without rice, takeaway in a box, eat well, gastropub, cook at home. It’s the same bloody dishes just done very slightly differently. 🤨

@Potpourriandpennysweets

I've thrown so much in date food away recently because it is off. Mouldy prawns, mouldy chicken, salad mix, stir fry mix. I had a bag of pears delivered which were mouldy (every single one had mould!) and the same thing with grapes and peaches. All well within date. I started to think it was my fridge not working, but happened with lots of food that doesn't go in the fridge too. I feel like quality has been cut across the board

This has happened to me too, very disappointing.