Shoppers have hit out at supermarkets after having their Christmas "ruined" by turkeys that they discovered were "rotten" when they unwrapped them to start dinner preparations.
With most supermarkets closing for business on Christmas Day, it was too late for many customers to prepare an alternative - with one shopper saying that their family had to resort to eating beans on toast instead. Supermarkets including Sainsbury's and Tesco issued an apology after a small number of customers were affected by the issue, HullLive reports.
It's not the first festive season that the issue has affected shoppers - previous years have seen similar complaints about the same problem as demand for turkeys soars in the lead-up to Christmas, forcing supermarkets to apologise. This year people took to social media to highlight the problem, complaining that their yuletide celebrations had been spoiled by "rotten" turkeys.
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One disappointed shopper wrote on Twitter: "Bought a Turkey less than five hours ago from Sainsbury's. opened it to give a soak overnight and it absolutely stinks. I’m so gutted. A complete waste, thanks Sainsbury's."
Another Sainsbury's shopper addressed the supermarket in a tweet alongside a photo of a discoloured turkey: "Please get back to me asap about this! £40 for a rotten turkey."
A third customer hit out at Sainsbury's: "Rotten turkey crown dated December 27 just ruined our Christmas Day. Looks rancid, smells worse!"
Meanwhile, a Tesco shopper even complained that her turkey had caused her partner to become sick. "No turkey on Christmas Day thanks to opening ours and it being so rotten it caused my other half to throw up," they fumed on Twitter.
"That’s £40 of bird gone straight in the bin and no meat for Christmas dinner," the customer added. "Who do we send this rotten bird to to get a refund please?"
A Tesco spokesperson said: "We’re really sorry to hear about this. We know that turkey is an important part of Christmas for many of our customers and we take great care when selecting and preparing our turkeys. We would ask [affected shoppers] to return the product to one of our stores so we can investigate further, and issue a full refund."
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: "We understand our customers enjoy turkey at Christmas and we are very sorry to hear that for a very tiny number of people we did not meet our usual high standards. We are apologising and investigating immediately. We would ask anyone with similar concerns to return their product to one of our stores to be refunded and for this to be investigated further."
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