Brits across the country have claimed Christmas was ruined after discovering their turkeys were rotten.
Many took to social media to post photos showing dark colours under the skin and general discolouring.
They also described a foul smell coming from the meat, which forced them to bin the whole lot.
Customers of Sainsbury’s, Lidl, Asda, Tesco and Morrisons all complained, with one man sharing a picture of his thawed turkey saying: ‘My turkey is rotten. Christmas ruined. Kids are crying. We now have to have beans on toast. An absolute disgrace.’
Sophie Whike showed a large section of her turkey bruised and wrote: ‘Literally what the hell is this…. Just defrosted my Turkey from @LidlGB … Christmas ruined.
‘It’s Xmas eve… this is actually a joke. Not only is there no meat the house smells of rotten meat. Not acceptable.’
Bara Menyn posted a photo of a large turkey with green bits all over it but posted later: ‘It’s all I’ve got, so I’m going to cook my rotten turkey anyway. #MerryChristmas.’
Another shopper said: ‘Sainsbury’s we’ve just opened our turkey and it is rotten despite having a 27th December use by date! How do we get a refund please?’
Someone else wrote: ‘Bought a Turkey less than 5 hours ago from @sainsburys opened it to give a soak overnight and it’s absolutely stinks. I’m so gutted. An complete waste thanks @sainsburys #rottenturkey #sainsburys’
Almost every major supermarket dealt with social media complaints, with an ASDA shopper tweeting: ‘@AsdaServiceTeam @asda christmas morning discover that our turkey bought from you just a few days ago is rotten?! First Christmas ruined for mine and my brother’s children. Anything you can do to save the day?!’
A Tesco customer said: ‘@Tesco no Turkey on Christmas Day thanks to opening ours and it being so rotten it caused my other half to throw up.
‘That’s £40 of bird gone straight in the bin and no meat for Christmas dinner. Who do we send this rotten bird to, to get a refund please?’
Another said: ‘@Tesco xmas ruined. Bought a fresh turkey on the 23rd dated 26th. Kept in fridge. Absolutely stinking rotten.’
It is worth noting that complaints like this come out every year around Christmas time.
The reason is unclear but it may simply be that the number of rotten turkeys is much bigger because of how many more are being bought in the first place.
An estimated 10 million turkeys are eaten on Christmas Day in the UK, but an avian flu outbreak left supermarkets short this year.
This led to the Department for Environmental, Farming & Rural Affairs giving supermarkets permission to sell frozen turkeys as fresh.
Retailers were advised to kill birds early and get them frozen and on supermarket shelves so families would not have to go without.
It is unknown whether this policy has anything to do with the rotten turkeys found this year.
ASDA said: ‘We sold hundreds of thousands of turkeys this Christmas and apologise that this customer’s product did not meet our usual high standards.
‘We would encourage any customers who are not satisfied with their turkey to contact our customer service team on 0800 952 0101 so that we can look into what happened.’
Morrisons said: ‘Our quality team taste test all our products – we have been taste testing our turkeys against our high quality and safety standards throughout the Christmas period – including our joints, crowns and whole birds and we have rigorous standards, procedures and testing in place with our approved suppliers.
‘Any complaints received from customers will be thoroughly investigated with our suppliers to ensure we satisfy our customers and meet our high quality standards.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted Tesco, Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons for comment.
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