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?

Furbaby you come across as very righteous. I'm sure TheNight wasn't after your sympathy, just answering the OPs original question.
I've got to say, even on 2 'ok' incomes, I often find myself not buying meat as it's too expensive. Did manage to get some bargain chicken from Tesco reduced today, but if I'm being honest, I don't feel like the difference I could make by switching up to organic or free range is worth not eating meat for, if that makes sense.

More Beta makes sense.
I prefer higher welfare meat. I will happily eat cheaper cuts.

But how can you guarantee the welfare? The horse meat scandal wasn't confined to value meat and unless there is an inspector at a farm etc 24/7 then you can't guarantee the claims of free range.

Unless you catch and kill your own then you have no idea what you're eating or how it's been raised.

Well we didn't quite catch the pheasant we're having for tomorrow's lunch ourselves, but it was shot on dh's cousin's farm and he gave it to us a week ago. It's been hanging in the garage for five days and we plucked, gutted and beheaded it yesterday...

See that's as free range as you can get. Whoever killed it at least knows it was out in the fresh air. You can't say that for certain about most meat.

Hope its good. I've not tried pheasant but DP keeps going on about how nice it is!

The horse eat thing was about processed meat, which very rarely claims to be high welfare.

You can buy pheasants relatively cheaply £2-3 per bird. If you buy a whole one you know what it is & pheasants aren't mass produced in the se way that chickens are. I can get 6 meals dr a small pheasant plus a load of stock.

it seems the only alnterative is Value or organic or lentils

what about bog standard meat?

why the suggestions about free range. when the qeustion was about value, surely you dont have to be so extreme.?

People who are really overly concerned about the welfare of animals shouldn't be eating any meat or animal produce and shouldn't be wearing any leather.

furbaby you have been very outspoken about people buying value chickens which have had a shit life, but can you be certain that the eggs that you buy are always from chickens that have had a good life?
Can you be sure that the beef you buy from your husband always comes from cows that have had a good life or are you reliant on the sticker on the packaging to inform you?
If you buy leather shoes, do you know how the animals were treated before they were slaughtered?

Jut because a sticker on the packet tells you that the meat is from an approved welfare farm doesn't mean that it is always true. The link I provided yesterday shows that chicken labelled as free range might never haver been outdoors. A sticker showing organic might mean that up to 50% of the animals diet might be GM maize. There are also different standards of animal welfare in farms showing that their meat has met good welfare standards.
So how can you be certain that the animal you cook for your husband hasn't had a Shite life or been fed a percentage of GM maize?
Yon can't come on here all self righteous talking about people buying chickens that have had a shite life unless you can be 100% certain yourself that the animal produce you buy really always comes from animals who have been treated well and not relying on a sticker to tell the full story (previous scandals are proof that labels are not always truthful).

People are entitled to buy whatever they please. There is no law against buying a chicken who had a shite life.

In fact people who are that concerned about animal welfare should probably be vegan, welfare of dairy cows in this country escapes many people's notice. Cows are unnaturally made pregnant every year leading to a shortened lifespan and the resultant 50% of calves that are male and therefore useless for general beef meat are either shot on farm at birth because a bullet is cheaper than the feed to keep them, or they're sold quickly to the pet food trade, or some are put into the rosé veal trade.

All for our daily pint of milk...

I eat expensive cuts of meat because I can afford it. The quality is amazing.

Butcher's beef mince at £15 per kilo makes the most delicious shepherds pie/lasagne/meatballs/chilli.

I have been poor for many more years than I have been well off. Trying to make a bolognaise sauce with the grey sludge from Iceland still makes me want to barf. But you live within your means.

yes i cant stand tesco frozen mince, though i used to use iceland, it was ok. as far as i can remember.

eat within your means. good point.

It's worth pointing out that 'value' meat and fish doesn't have to be cruel or poor quality. Sainsburys frozen basics white fish fillets are MSC certified (pollack, I think), and certain types of offal such as heart can be extremely cheap and IMO delicious. We had pork hocks as a roast a while back (Nigella recipe from Kitchen) and were v impressed. Belly of lamb is delicious too.

Big standard meat is still produced in poor conditions & are loaded with water, antibiotics & hormones. But it if that doesn't bother you, then eat it.

Each to their own... You asked why people wouldn't eat value meat & they're explaining it & describing what they do eat & why. No pressure on you. Eat whatever you want.

Aliama, I agree about the MSC fish.

I'd rather be (and have been) veggie rather than eat unethical meat. Millions of people eat rather fabulous veggie food around the world so it's hardly a hardship. My older daughter is pescetarian, in any case; and I do try and ensure that all the seafood we have is sustainable (which includes tinned sardines and those small frozen prawns, so not exactly bank-breaking)....

Lidl sells a terrific undyed MSC-accredited smoked mackerel. Unfortunately my fellow inmates of the Inferiority Complex reject its gorgeousness for the orange fillets

we are just answering the question. seems like those of us who are posting try to eat free range

as for the vegan argument, that is a good ethical choice but it is not the only response to animal welfare concerns. it is a politician's argument to make it a choice between animal cruelty or no animal products at all, knowing that most people would then choose animal cruelty. it is not a crude choice.

I try to eat ethically-reared meat. I take the point that there are no guarantees, but at least I'm doing my best. That's just me though and my priorities; everyone has different tipping-points. We don't eat a tonne of meat anyway as I used to be veggie and have a pretty good repertoire of veggie dishes under my belt which I genuinely like, but I know that lots of people don't think a meal is a proper meal if it doesn't have meat in it, and if that's how they want to do things then fair fucks to them; I'm sure there's loads of things I do that people consider wrong. I do actually feel pretty bad about the dairy industry, but not to the point of substituting soya mostly because it's a hassle to get hold of. I wouldn't eat value bacon not just because I care about the cute ikkle piggies but because when you cook it all that icky white stuff comes out as it's so stuffed full of water. If I want water, I'll get it out of a tap, not in my lovely bacon.

Value streaky bacon is amazing for getting really crispy though

There was more but I've distracted myself by thinking about bacon...

Mmmmm ... bacon. I get ours from the butcher - smoked streaky, cut thick with proper rind and fat on that, yes, gets lovely and crispy.

[snaffles around in fridge]

I bought good bacon the other week and it was so thick I couldn't get a satisfying crisp on it

I can't park outside our butchers. I may get DP to sling me out on payday and I'll stock up!

Personally I prefer to use a cheaper cut (e.g. shin of beef) than buying something that has been artificially pumped with water and other additives. Without turning this into a "one-chicken-twenty-meals" thread, the £10 free-range chicken from our local organic farm gives easily three times as much meat as a fatty, water-pumped "cheap" one, because it's all meat. I couldn't believe it the first time I got one. Admittedly we can't afford one all that often but when I do get one I'm left with plenty of meat to freeze that can see us through the leaner weeks. Even leaving aside the welfare issue, which some people wouldn't want to do, it was still barely worth it financially.

Basically, if it's meant to be a cheap cut (shin, liver if you can stand it, etc.) then it works very well, especially if you have a slow cooker. But the cheapened versions of something like chicken, or other cuts that are usually more expensive - generally things that are eaten on their own rather than curried or casseroled - can be pretty vile.

I buy value bacon and I buy the one up from value chicken, pork and salmon.

There most probably is no difference between sainsburys value and sainsburys middle range chicken.

I don't like lentils of kidney beans blugh but I do use leftovers.