ALDI have apologised after a horrified couple discovered what they claimed were “oozing tumours” on her chicken.
The supermarket chain have flatly denied the meat was contaminated by admitted it contained pockets of blood which burst during cooking.
Zoe Pratten, from Swanley, Kent, and her partner Ben Mant, were horrified when they removed their “Southern Fried Chicken Drumsticks and Thighs” from the oven – to discover a revolting smell and the chicken oozing fluid.
Builder Ben, 22, was so disgusted by the smell and fluid oozing from the £3.50 chicken that he began “heaving”, convinced that it was a tumour.
Zoe, 21, took to the supermarket’s Facebook page to share her disgust, writing: “Please be careful if you have bought breaded chicken drumsticks and thighs from Aldi.
“We cooked ours last night from frozen, to find tumours on the chicken.”
Zoe also posted a series of photographs of the affected chicken.
One chicken leg has a large bright pink spot visible through the breaded coating, with darker pink and black fluid clearly trickling out.
Another photo shows two pieces of chicken with a large dark black spot, and another with the same bright pink fleshy part visible – and pink liquid seeping down the skin.
The railway ticket office operator said that she and partner Ben had frozen the chicken at the beginning of March, but that it was still in date.
Speaking today, Zoe said: “We didn’t even realise they were on there until we took it out of the oven, and it just kind of oozed out.
“There were about five or six in the box, and three of them were like you see in the pictures. My partner was heaving over it, he noticed it first. Ben had seen posts on the internet about it before, and how they just cut the tumours off chicken, and that’s what made us think it was a tumour.
“It was horrible, I think whatever it was had swollen in the oven and then popped.”
On social media, Tom Bennett wrote: “Nasty.”
While Sharna Darci Sienna Bristow tagged a few friends, followed by a sickly looking green faced emoji.
An Aldi spokesman said: “Although unusual, it is possible for some blood to naturally remain in the chicken during production.
“While there is no food safety issue when the product is fully cooked, we accept that this is not appealing and falls below our usual high standards.
“We have apologised to Ms Pratten for any inconvenience caused.”
