H5N1 virus - will this spell the end for Bernard Matthews et al ?

[LIZS]

As the "farms" and plant where they process poultry from imports come under scrutiny , will this spell the end of the Bernard Matthews brand and, indeed, bring into question (again ) just how cheap products reach our supermarket shelves. \link{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6349983.stm\Poultry sales down ?) I for one, quite irrationally, didn't buy fresh turkey earlier this week, anyone else ?

Story here

I only really eat turkey at Thanksgiving. Come November I'll still get a turkey.

We can only live in hope Liz

Don't really eat turkey and try only to eat free range chicken. I loathe all processed meat of whichever variety as all it tastes of is preservatives.

I really hope that it does spell the end but Brits seem more concerned about the price of their food than where it comes from so I doubt it.

oh i do hope so.

I really hope that the whole bse, birdflu, farmed salmon is so toxic i wouldn't give it to my worst enemy thing will end in the death knell for intensive farming and food processing plants.

agree sophable. Did anyone read the report in yesterday's guardian re: conditions on the bernard matthews processing plant ? all immigrants, all on less than the minimum wage - fast food nation all over again. Despicable.

Let's hope so.

I really hope this is going to bring about a whole sea-change in the way we view food production, etc. I may be over-optimistic, though...

the trouble is though, that too many people are too used to buying overly cheap food which is shite. They would rather pay £2.99 for 'chicken' which is mechanically recovered and pumped full of steroids, chemicals and growth hormones and eat said shite 3 times a week, whereas what they should do is pay three times that for a decent organically reared british chicken and eat it once a week.

I rememebr Turkey Drummers being oen fo our student staples - 99p for 6 or 8 iirc. Makes me feel ill just thinking about it now . How much (liittle )real meat was in it and whether any "flavour" actually came from the "meat" itself or was added. Processed and cheap meat is so flavourless that I think people's tastebuds have been affected by eating such cr*p , hence the rise in curries, sauces etc to compensate.

Agreed Donnie, companies won't change until consumer attitudes do.

It won't spell the end for them, but it is certainly drawing attention to the madness in food labelling laws - ie that you can import food such as chicken or pork, process it in this country and label it as British.

So pleased that this outbreak happened on a Bernard Matthews farm

Lizs - I have often wondered the same, about the rise in curries, cook-in sauces etc.
I also wonder if that is why Sainsburys loves Jamie Oliver so much - a lot of his recipes involve a lot of lovely flavoursome spices and fresh herbs so they work really well with crappy supermarket meats.

i hope so. turkey is foul har de ... no really turkey is horrid. mushed up turkey with e number - yum (not)

well according to today's news the factory is already up and running again....

Previous hygiene breaches - I feel ill ...

Ah Oati,you took the words right out of my mouth.

There is a price below which it shouldn't be possible to purchase an animal. It shouldn't cost 2.99 less everybody's profit to rear a chicken. I am not pro-fox hunting, but I really wish the labour government had tackled companies like Bernard Matthews before they worried about foxes.

Exactly MP.
Or getting into a flap about bloody Foie gras.

I do hope so!

I can't believe people still buy Bernard Matthews stuff.

I bl**dy hope so, but sadly I shouldn't think it will change a damned thing. It's been abundantly clear from so many things in the news recently that there is only one thing that matters in this world, and that is the big fat M word. Never mind that by 2100 there may only be a handful of humans left, living at the tip of Greenland, as long as we don't harm the world economy (wrong thread I know, but hey). If the politicians don't care about the potential demise of the human race, not to mention the rest of the inhabitants of this planet, you can be sure they don't care about the welfare of a few million turkeys and chickens.