why wouldnt you use value meat and/or fish

[LucyLasticKnickers]

i dont, i dont know why. I try value bacon and have no problem with it, I tried value smoked mackeral and that was deliciious.
i owuldnt try the sausages for fear of the gristle.
what is wrong with value chicken?

We only buy free-range meat, I was vegetarian for years, then I read into dairy farming and animals suffer as much for dairy as meat production, but I wasn't committed enough to become vegan, so I buy organic milk, free-range eggs, and free range/ outdoor reared meat. I eat meat three to four time a week, because that's what I can afford and am able to cook, the meals my kids will eat without meat are limited. I'd like to eat less meat, I need to get better at vegetarian options.

Free range chicken is actually lower in fat than battery birds, so better for you. Non-organic cows get mastitis, which isn't fun for anything I'd think. I eat meat with a clear conscience, but I don't like the thought of more suffering than necessary. I'll always buy fair trade if it's an option too.

I understand that I am very lucky to be able to afford the option, but in the past, when money has been tight we ate less meat, I'm much happier with that. I buy cheap, seasonal veg, we don't eat a lot of soft fruit because it's so pricey and when we do eat meat we don't have a huge amount, stew with lots of beans and veg, a chicken will always last two meals etc.

Can I suggest you check prices at your local butchers?

I've just discovered one ear where I work which does £20 meat packs and for that you get:

A roast (beef or ham or a chicken, either roast chicken or boned and stiffed chicken and they are huge, think the size of the £10 supermarket birds)

10 slices of high quality square slice sausage (you can really taste the difference between them and the supermarket)

Four pork loin steaks

A pound of mince

Four large chicken breasts

A pack of bacon - 8 slices and they are big and very good quality

10 of the nicest pork sausages I have ever had

All from locally produced meat as well, from reasonably ethical (not organic) farms and recognisably different in taste and texture to cheap meat.

I only buy organic meat from the farmer's market so I know it is reared, killed & processed locally & ethically. I don't want DS to eat meat that is full of hormones, antibiotics and water.

I don't see meat as a critical part of a human diet and there's lots of information about cheap meat which doesn't sit comfortably with me. If I can't afford decent meat (which, often, I cannot), we just don't eat it. We have meat on average once or twice a month. DS isn't deprived

Meat at most meals isn't a new thing. It's been going on for centuries.

Tbh I couldn't care less about the chickens life if it gets DS to eat. Sorry but when you have a 4 year old with the waist of a 12-18month old and serious food issues you don't care if what he is eating has played in the sunshine.

We don't always buy value. Right now I have £40 to feed 5 for 3 weeks and that's only because my mum gave me money for christmas. Cheap mince- £2= bolognese and shepherds pie if bulked with lentils. Bit left over to make mini meatballs for DS or a small burger
Cheap chicken £5 roughly- small roast, casserole and a pie. More mini roasts for DS.
Value eggs- 18 for £1.89 or something- omelettes, scrambled eggs on toast etc etc.

This is what I have to do some weeks. I don't always like it but DS can go a week without a meal if he can't eat it separately (nothing touching, no sauce etc) and as he's on the bottom percentile for his age and height I have to do what it takes within my budget so he can eat.

No-one is judging. The OP asked why you wouldn't use cheap/ value meat/ fish. I'm not bothered what other people eat but here are some of my reasons for not eating cheaply produced meat. There is a lot of literature about this but here are a few links, in case you are genuinely interested:

BBC guide - healthy alternatives to cheap meat

Issues with cheap meat:

concerns www.dailyfinance.com/on/healthy-cows-sick-consumers-cdc-warns-of-a-high-cost-in-chea/

www.webmd.com/diet/features/safer-food-healthier-you

Antibiotics

Moral issues

Your choice - the question was why wouldn't you - My answer I choose to put my health and the treatment of other animals first, so eat organic/free range when i can and no meat when i can't

It's the welfare that bothers me, with chicken and pork. And the food miles, if it's imported. I have no problems with imported food, if it's a staple food that can't be grown here, but it's irresponsible in so many ways when importing isn't a necessity. Plus imported meat is often subjected to lower welfare standards than here - which is why it's cheaper.

I only buy British pork. I think pork from the EU can have horrendous conditions - especially the female pigs during the birth of piglets and the nursing of them. Really horrendous.

I would rather pay a bit more and eat a few bites less of it.

I would prefer to eat less meat than to eat any non- free range meat for ethical reasons. I admit I am not 100 percent but I try

value mackerel I wouldn't have a problem with.

'British' meat doesn't necessarily mean it is raised and slaughtered in the UK... I think it can be called British even if it was only processed here.

Labelling can be misleading

This is about animal welfare but I have concerns about the impact on human health too

But I do the same... pay more for decent meat & eat less of it.

I wouldn't eat cheap meat as it has been involved in major food scandals. I worry about BSE and the horsemeat scandel.

Sometimes some special offers are too good to be true.

I eat what I can afford to eat (no way would I eat lentils instead of value meat), I think people have become a little bit too fussy about what they eat which is fine if you can afford to eat organic corn fed chicken and wild salmon.

I would rather eat road kill then tuck into lentils

Big deal this is an animal who is having a shit life .

I would rather the animals have a good life, but if it's a choice between my children eating lentils on a daily basis (yuk) or an animal having a shit life then my children come first. My children would feel pretty shit if they had to eat lentils several times a week because mummy couldn't afford a £16 corn fed, organic, free roaming chicken.

I am sure I have also seen reports about free range chickens not necessarily having that much space to roam. The space needed to define a chicken as free range isn't that much (it doesn't mean roaming about a yard at a leisurely pace all day).

I do worry about antibiotics and additives, but you can never be sure that an animal has been reared as advertised, even if you buy it from the local farmers market. The only way you can be sure that the animal has been reared as expected is if you rear it yourself.

Free range chickens don't necessarily go outside during their life:

www.organicagcentre.ca/Docs/AnimalWelfare/Soil%20Association/Welfare%20standards%20organic%20v%20free%20range.pdf

Lentils are lovely. Not sure why they are apparently on this thread being suggested as the only alternative to meat though . There are more choices of food than just organic free range chicken OR lentils!

I've eaten and fed my family value meat in the past and would do so again if I had to. However given that we're now in a position to be able to buy more expensive meat, the reason I choose to do that and why we don't eat value meat anymore is quality. Value meat simply isn't of the same quality as the more expensive meat from the likes of Waitrose, M&S etc. It doesn't taste as good, the texture is poorer, the shrinkage is extreme, and the watery scum that comes out of cheap, water pumped chicken when it's seared in a pan is revolting. Welfare issues for me are much further down the scale.

But I'd love to know where these cheap butchers that people keep mentioning are. Our local butcher's is family owned for generations, has stiff competition in the town, yet still charges in the region of £16 for a large 5lb chicken and something like £20 for a 5lb brisket joint!

The Night is Dark you have no sympathy from me ...
your choice to have children . I dont care if your child is fussy with food .
The poor chicken with a very shit life will feel it more .
I do find it shocking that a few seem to think that they are so much better than others by thinking they can eat what they want and sod how they got onto their plate .
Well I am sorry but I do give a shit about any suffering that made it into my kitchen .
But hey karma and all that .....

Lidl sell free-range chicken for £6ish

I would never knowingly eat value meat and I wouldn't want my children eating it either. We could quite happily eat a vegetarian diet with fish and chicken perhaps once a month or so, or never if needs be.

Lidl sell free-range chicken for £6ish

A free range chicken might never have been outside, might have been fed GM modified maize and might be only marginally better than its cheaper value counterparts.
People thinking they are doing their bit for animal welfare and their own health by buying a free range chicken for £6 are in cuckoo land.
I buy value chicken, but I'm not kidding myself into thinking that free range standards are great.

That's ok I can manage without your sympathy as chickens can manage without mine.

I also don't think I'm better than anyone. It wasn't my posts that had smugness dripping off them.

We all do what we feel is best, I'm aware that free-range is lower welfare than organic, but it is significantly higher welfare and nutritionally superior to caged 'value' bird.

My feeling is I would rather buy a cheaper cut of meat from a higher welfare standard animal than buy an expensive cut from an animal kept in poor welfare conditions.

Problem is that it is so hard for a consumer to judge what is an animal kept in good welfare standard conditions.

From a farming background myself I reared and fattened animals for market and it is not at all easy to make good choices. Expensive does not always mean better but generally cheap means low welfare.