Tesco are handing customers whose Christmases were ruined by rotten turkeys gift vouchers to say sorry.
The Food Standards Agency has pledged to look into complaints from furious Tesco shoppers said their festive turkeys were ‘rancid’ and ‘tasted like acid’.
Dozens of families said they were left without a meal to serve and they had to order emergency takeaways after discovering their Tesco turkeys had gone off.
Tesco is now looking at customers complaints and giving those they feel were sold poor quality birds vouchers of up to £75 as a ‘gesture of good will’.
Carl Barber took this photograph of his turkey and said it was ‘out of date’ so he was unable to cook it on Christmas Day
Karen Carter was furious and said that she had to ‘throw’ her turkey away after it was ‘rotten’
Twitter user Ronnie Barnes was ‘furious’ when he went on Twitter on Christmas Day and said that his turkey crown was ‘rancid’
The Foods Standards Agency said today: ‘Tesco have confirmed that they are investigating the complaints they have received about turkeys on a case by case basis.
‘We have no evidence at present to suggest that there is a problem in their supply chain. Investigations are continuing and we will take appropriate action if necessary.’
Some customers abandoned their turkey dinners before even putting the birds in the oven because of the smell.
Others say they didn’t notice until they had started digging into their Christmas meal and complained that their turkey tasted like ‘bleach’ and’acid’.
Angry customers took to Facebook and Twitter on Christmas Day to complain about turkeys, which cost up to £59 in the store’s Finest range.
Carl Barber, from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, went on Facebook yesterday and posted a picture of the turkey he bought ‘only a few days ago’.
He wrote: ‘This was bought only a few days ago and it’s out of date. 23 quid wasted now have no Xmas turkey for Xmas day. Any customer services available today??’
Mr Barber took this image of his turkey and said that he had ‘wasted’ £23 because he no longer had a fresh turkey to cook
Sian Jones bought this ‘fresh turkey crown’ from Tesco and paid £20.95 for it but told MailOnline it was ‘stinking’ on Monday morning
One Twitter user, Jase @SappninBitton, was forced to order an emergency Chinese takeaway for his family in Glasgow after he discovered their turkey was rotten.
At almost 8pm on Christmas Day, he wrote: ‘We’re sitting waiting on a Chinese coming after @Tesco ruined #ChristmasDinner.
‘Thank the lord for @JustEatUK. Think this is the first time I’ve ever spent money on Christmas Day.
‘What else you gonna do with eight hungry mouths and a rotten turkey. Think I’ll send Tesco the bill.’
He added: ‘I’ve seen a lot of people saying the same. Thankfully I noticed before cooking/eating it. I got refunded for my turkey but the whole meal was ruined.’
Tesco has been inundated with messages from customers regarding their fresh and frozen turkeys and the store apologised to people on social media and offered them a refund.
Lisa Baker, from Gloucester, posted two photographs online after her turkey had ‘gone off’
Craig Taylor sarcastically ‘thanked’ Tesco for the ‘rotten turkey’ he bought and said that he could not cook it because of the ‘disgusting smell’
Alison Kendall, from Essex, said that her Christmas dinner had been ‘ruined’ and described her ‘sheer panic’ when she realised it had gone off at 6am yesterday.
She said: ‘Thank you Tesco for the Finest Turkey Crown with a sell by date of 26/12 that had gone off by the 25th… ruining our Christmas Dinner.
‘Imagine my sheer panic at 6am on Xmas Day, opening the turkey wrap to be hit by that ‘gone off’ smell with 10 people coming to Xmas Dinner.’
Kirsten Shore, from Stafford, wrote: ‘Snap! We had the same problem! Our first time hosting and a rotten turkey from @Tesco ruined our day! I’m devastated!
‘Thanks @Tesco for selling me a gone off turkey and wrecking my first Christmas day cooked at my home! £250 wasted. An awful meal and eight sick people!’
She later added on Facebook: ‘I was very excited and worked super hard to make and prepare Christmas dinner for my family for the first time ever but thanks to the Tesco I served them a rotten, racid turkey that was inedible.
‘Not only that – the gravy was made from the turkey so that resulted in everyone’s meal ending up in the bin. Thanks Tesco!’
Karen Carter tweeted: ‘Thanks @Tesco for ruining our Christmas. Disgusting turkey I had delivered on Friday stinking and rotten. Just had to throw away.’
Natasha Hales, from Braunton, Devon, said that Tesco had ‘ruined’ her Christmas and that they were ‘nearly sick’
Jordan Shore, from Manchester, wrote: ‘Hi @Tesco we cooked a turkey from you today to find that it was totally inedible. Acid type taste is all I can describe.’
Julie Duer added: ‘@Tesco very disappointed as had the worst Christmas ever.
‘Bought your Finest Turkey for Christmas lunch and Christmas morning your turkey was off.
‘Ruined the whole day as only get all my family together once every two years. Cheers Tesco.’
Some furious, and hungry, customers also took to Facebook to vent about their ruined meals.
Kelly Greaves from Stoke-on-Trent, wrote: ‘Huge shout out to Tesco on selling us a rotten turkey – and judging by your Facebook and Twitter, we are one of many!
‘The turkey smelt/tasted like bleach! Sadly with us making the gravy from the juices, and pouring it all over our vegetables and potatoes – the whole table of eight went hungry!
‘We literally had NO Christmas dinner except a Christmas pudding.’
Julie Duer tweeted this morning that she had the ‘worst Christmas ever’ after she bought Tesco’s ‘finest’ turkey only to find that it had gone ‘off’
Tania Fleming said that her turkey crown was ‘extremely off’ when she went to cook it on Christmas Day and added she was forced to ‘chuck it out’
Jane Plant from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, contacted Tesco to tell them she had been blaming a strange smell in the house on her husbands feet, only to discover it was yet another rotten turkey.
She said: ‘So this evening i went to prepare my turkey like I do every Christmas Eve. The said turkey was purchased from Tesco Uttoxeter on Thursday 21st December.
‘I’d actually smelt a funny smell in my house for the last couple of days and actually blamed my husbands feet.
‘On opening the turkey I found it was in fact not my husbands feet but the extra large turkey that we were having for Christmas dinner.
‘As it was 7.30pm on Christmas Eve there was nowhere I could actually get another one from so my husband went to Tesco Express with no smelly feet to be told there was nothing they could do about it and he had to purchase two joints of beef.
‘We now have to have a completely different family Christmas meal so a big thanks Tesco for ruining our family Christmas meal and furthermore making me apologise to my husband for blaming his feet.’
And Scott Barnwell wrote: ‘Thanks Tesco! No turkey for Christmas lunch as it is off, even though it is still in date.’
Last year, dozens of disappointed Tesco customers shared images online after cutting open their turkeys and discovering they were green inside.
Leanne Woodman said her ‘fresh’ turkey smelled ‘like rotten eggs’ and said that her Christmas dinner was ruined
James Hill said that ‘Christmas dinner if off’ after he inspected their turkey on Monday morning
The off-coloured meat was thought to be caused by an unharmful degenerative muscle condition in turkeys – commonly referred to as Green Muscle Disease.
It occurs after the inner breast muscle of the bird develops in a way that prevents blood supply from circulating, resulting in the green discolouration.
Last year, Tesco said: ‘There’s nothing more important than the quality of the food we sell so we were concerned to hear this has happened.
‘We’ve offered a refund to the customers affected and will inform our supplier.’
Tesco replied to Mr Barber on Christmas Day and offered him a refund.
The store wrote: ‘I’m very sorry to see that your Turkey has gone off. I’d like to get you refunded so you’re not out of pocket.’
A Tesco spokesman told MailOnline today: ‘We’ve sold hundreds of thousands of great quality British turkeys this Christmas.
‘We have exceptionally high standards so we will look to address the small number of complaints in recent days.
‘We will get in touch with each customer so we can investigate how these instances may have happened.’
A Food Standards Agency spokesman said: ‘We are aware of the incidents reported on social media and we are considering our next steps.’