Really been put off Aldi after opening off chicken

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

I've been harping on to anyone who will listen about how good our new Aldi is. Been using it a few weeks with no issues but this evening DH opened a couple of packs of chicken breasts to make enchiladas. They were use by 19th Oct so a whole week to go. He said the second pack had a wierd texture - it was disintegrating as he was cutting it and seemed to be standing in a lot of liquid. We both sniffed it and heaved - it was clearly off.

So disappointed. It has really put me off buying meat there. I could kind of forgiven them if it was the day of the use by date, but a whole week!

Was I just unlucky and it was a one-off? I can only remember this happening once in all my years of shopping at tesco and that was the day of the use by date so was prepared to see it as a one-off.

Could HAVE forgiven them

Oh no was right first time!

Ive just opened use by 16/10/14 Aldi chicken legs and they smell sort of offish. Not discoloured or anything .I suppose they smell a bit like an old butchers shop used to - old blood .

I'm not sure whether to cook them or not.Theyre just for DH so I might risk it.

But anything like this puts me right off. This isnt the first time Ive heard that Aldi chicken is suspect.

I think you were just unlucky. It can happen anywhere. It has happened to me with chicken from both Tesco and M & S, although Tesco were repeat offenders. I bought chicken in Aldi last week and it was still ok a day before the date.
You should've bagged it up and taken it back to them to get your money back.

I think it depends on the store and how well trained the assistants are as I've seen restocking taking far too long on chilled sections. Definitely complain, Aldi have a 60 day promise so you'll get your money back.

I only bought it yesterday so I assume that somewhere along the line it has been kept too long out of the fridge. I was home within 10 mins and it went straight into fridge so must have happened their end. I did notice that there were loads of empty trolleys everywhere (the ones the staff use to load stock onto shelves) so they had obviously been busy and hadn't had time to move the empty ones so makes me wonder if the full ones get left there a while too.

We were so disgusted with the smell that dh put it in a bag and straight into the bin. Didn't fancy leaky salmonella chicken all over our nice clean fridge - they're shut now, obviously so it would have had to go back in there till I could take it back tomorrow. So doubt I'll get my money back despite having the receipt. I will go back tomorrow though and tell them as maybe the whole batch is off.

Will get the next lot from Tesco and see if I feel brave about buying Aldi's in a few weeks!

Is a shame as I have discovered their raspberry and passion fruit layered yoghurts and it tastes just like M&S raspberry pannacotta, at a fraction of the price. And their luxury fruit muesli which I tried for the first time this morning is lovely.

Oh, and KillMeNow, raw chicken DOES have a smell to it usually, I find. But this was most definitely off. Smelled sweet, sickly and just so wrong!! Oh I want to heave again.....

Aldi fan here.
The only place I have bought 'Off' chicken breasts at was Sainsburys. So nowhere is immune

I brought an off chicken from Sainsbury's too, never had one from Aldi and buy a free range chicken every week

I have found that sometimes Aldi Chicken breasts have a very odd grainy texture, more like Turkey I suppose. Never had any from there that were off though.

I think you can smell it if it is off. Definitely unpleasant.

It's a shame you binned it - they sometimes want to check the barcode on the packaging to trace back to the day it was shipped in or put out on the shelves etc.

But I can understand why :)

I used to work for Sainsburys - and there were strict rules on how long chilled goods were allowed to be at room temp. Iirc it was 30 minutes. So if a member of staff was taking too long to stack the shelves then they could potentially be 'spoiling' the foods. Of course it can take much longer than that for the customer to take the foods home and refrigerate again - but it's just erring on the safe side for the store.

This has happened to us several times with Aldi meat and poultry - it goes off well within date. As the OP says, it's not blood / flesh smell, it's offensive . It has put us right off buying Aldi meat Never had this problem with the other supermarkets!

I didn't realise you could get your money back! I might try Aldi again then

I had a really bad run with Aldi, dodgy fruit and veg. I bought 2 of the bloody kitchen timers and ended up with hard boiled eggs and some pitta bread which were green when still in date
Some prices are dodgy too, whole almonds are cheaper in Sainsburys, Aldi look cheaper because they are a smaller pack
Aldi are good for baking stuff and cheap crisps and junk
I did ring customer services who were very nice and helpful (unlike Asda, I will never shop at Asda again after dealing with their customer services)
Aldi sent me a £10 voucher

You should have informed the shop so that they can investigate the supplier. If you can't take it back immediately put in the freezer as they will want to see the barcodes. What if the whole batch was off or contaminated and someone died of food poisoning? Chicken should not smell at all if it does it's not edible.

Disclaimer I know, I know I am exaggerating!