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Complaint Date 30/12/2003 |
Complaint entered by DHS |
Merryhill Centre
Brierley Hill Dudley DY5 1QL |
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Last update 31/10/2007 |
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Complaint Date 30/12/2003 |
Complaint entered by DHS |
Merryhill Centre
Brierley Hill Dudley DY5 1QL |
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| Christmas is often associated with a memorable occasion, incident or occurrence and this year was no difference, Christmas 2003 will always be remembered as the year of the goose, or perhaps more accurately, the goose we bought from Sainsbury’s. It has always been tradition in our house, due to my German origin, to have a goose for Christmas instead of the traditional English turkey and, for the last few years we always had a fresh goose from a local farmer and thoroughly enjoyed it. Regretfully, we did not continue this ritual this year when we got tempted in the run up to Christmas, during our usual shopping trip to our local store, to buy a ‘Free Range Goose’ from ‘Button Norfolk Farm’, not fresh, but frozen. Having invited the neighbours round for Christmas dinner we picked the heaviest one, 5.2 kg and kept it in the freezer till Christmas. After defrosting it as per instructions, we took it out from the wrapper on Christmas day morning and had our first surprise when the ‘with giblets’ description turned out to consist of a scraggy neck and nothing else. Giblets are, as you are no doubt aware defined as ‘consisting of the gizzard, heart, neck and liver of poultry’ and these parts are usually used, together with apples and various other ingredients, to create the traditional stuffing for the goose. Fortunately we did have some sausages in the house and we substituted the ‘giblets’ for the stuffing with the sausage meat. Whilst preparing the goose rubbing in the salt I commented that the bird seemed rather flat breasted, but thought no more of it, once it had gone in the oven. We roasted it for the usual and recommended time but when it came to serving the goose we found to our horror that it was tougher than leather. The meat on the chest, despite being cooked slightly pink, was so hard, it was inedible, which left the stuffing and the meat on the two legs to be shared amongst 5 people, which, I can assure you, did not prove to be very popular with our visitors who, fortunately, saw the funny side and laughed it off. All in all, our traditional goose Christmas dinner was a disaster and the only member of our family who did enjoy it was our cat who was treated to the goose breast which must be considered the most expensive cat food we ever bought, at about £12.00 per kilo of meat if I disregard the bones. Sainsbury's website, I can’t deny it, does say ‘goose can be tough ‘and continues to say ‘it is essential to buy a young bird (usually 6 to 12 month old)’. When it went on and said ‘these days it is possible to get a good tender goose at Christmas’ I was naturally relating these statements to Sainsbury’s range of Christmas geese, but clearly I must have been mistaken. As we had no problems with our Christmas geese in previous years, I am aware that it is possible these days to get a good tender goose at Christmas and that it is essential to buy a young bird but regretfully this clearly does not apply, if you buy a frozen ‘Free Range Goose’ from Sainsbury’s. The poor bird they supplied was clearly in the twilight years of its life and should have been allowed to spend the last few months in peace and tranquillity on the meadows of the Button Norfolk Farm, if it actually came from there. Believe me; I am not saying that all the frozen geese they sold for Christmas are synonymous to the poor bird we unfortunately bought from them and which somehow found its way into the supply chain. It clearly was not fit for human consumption and Sainsbury's might wish to take up this matter with their suppliers as it is neither fair on them or us, the consumer, if these birds are sold under the pretence of being young free range geese from Norfolk when they are tough, old and bony birds. |
| Sainsbury;s have reacted more than promptly and replied with an apology enclosing shopping vouchers to the value of £25.00. Well done Sainsbury's and thank you for dealing with a complaint so efficiently |
| Complaint Status: closed | Overall Efficiency: |
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excellent
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| Respond Time : |
excellent
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| Final Outcome : |
excellent
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