Furious buyers accuse supermarkets of ‘ruining Christmas’ after being delivered rotten turkeys | EUROtoday

Furious Christmas buyers have accused Britain’s largest supermarkets of ruining Christmas after their turkeys had been discovered to be smelly and discoloured upon supply.

The buyers posted footage of yellowed turkeys, complaining concerning the scent as they criticised the grocery store giants for failing to produce wholesome meat.

“Just opened the turkey I ordered & it has MOULD on it & the smell is awful, it’s rotten,” mentioned a Tesco shopper, alongside an image of a rancid-looking yellow turkey.

“Thank you for ruining Xmas, I don’t have a back up, so it’s just stuffing & pigs in blankets for us, if they aren’t off too. Never again. Omg the smell is everywhere, need candles ASAP,” she added.

Another shopper, who paid Sainsbury’s practically £32 for a 1.8kg turkey, mentioned: “Rancid taste the difference turkey opened Christmas morning!

“In date till 26/12, the smell was so bad!! £31 and had to go in the bin!”

Another Sainsbury’s shopper mentioned turkey needed to be dropped from the Christmas menu on Thursday.

“No turkey for us today!” he posted on X.

“Bought on Saturday, been in the fridge ever since. The pictures really don’t portray how bad it smelt once we cut the packaging open. Very disappointed Sainsbury’s.”

One shopper accused Sainsbury’s Longwater Superstore in Norwich of promoting him a “rotten turkey” which he “opened up to a Christmas morning stench”.

He added: “I’m certainly gonna “taste the difference” with this!!!!!”

Another shopper, who opted for beef, mentioned: “Thanks @LidlGB our beef is rotten for Xmas day. Not good.”

Other buyers complained that their meat went old-fashioned earlier than Christmas Day arrived – and even lengthy earlier than they’d been purchased.

“I bought these turkey 10/12. They are massively past their sell by,” mentioned one Tesco shopper, alongside footage of turkeys which went old-fashioned in May and June 2025. “Ealing Broadway store should be fined for food hygiene failures . I didn’t notice . Not expecting turkeys on sale in December to be past their date.”

Another Tesco shopper who collected an order on 23 December quickly discovered that the use by date on her unsmoked bone-in gammon joint was 24 December.

“@Tesco Collected order 23 December. Just noticed date is 24 December and it smells! Cooking this for xmas dinner!! Disgusted,” the consumer wrote. Tesco requested her to direct message additional particulars concerning the incident.

A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s mentioned: “We will be contacting these customers who received a turkey that does not meet our usual high standards to say how sorry we are for this experience and reassure them that we’re looking into how this may have happened.”

The Independent has contacted Tesco and Lidl for remark.