A GRIEVING woman whose brother died of Covid on Christmas Eve was forced to eat beans on toast yesterday after she discovered her turkey was rotten.
Sara Revell, from Folkestone in Kent – a Tier 4 area – began preparing her roast lunch hours after hearing the tragic news.
He died this week – months after he and Sara’s mum died with Covid during the first UK-wide lockdown.
Sara bought the turkey from Lidl – but when she cut open the packaging, there was a “horrendous” smell.
“When you lose your mum to Covid-19 in May you can’t believe its happening to you, and you’re hoping that’s the last bad news of the year,” she told the Mirror.
“But if that wasn’t bad enough, my brother passed away Christmas Eve through Covid.
“The devastation you feel is unimaginable.
“When you’re grieving for the mum you’ve lost and then your brother, Christmas isn’t important.
“However, we had already bought the turkey crown.
“To top it off, the turkey crown we bought was off.
“The smell is unbelievable.
“I can’t wait to see the back end of this year.
“I hope other people take this Covid epidemic seriously as I wouldn’t want anyone to go through this unimaginable pain.”
It comes amid a slew of complaints from customers about their ‘rotten’ turkeys.
Meal plans were left in tatters as social media users hit out at big-name branches including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Aldi and Asda.
Some customers said their birds were “green” and “stinky”.
One Lidl customer claimed his dinner was “ruined” after realising his £25 turkey had gone off despite a Boxing Day sell-by date.
He said: “Cheers @LidlGB. Bought this Turkey crown from Guisborough store three days ago, straight in the fridge, sell-by date Boxing Day.
“Absolutely stinks, rotten meat. £24.18 for a ruined Christmas dinner.”
Another posted pictures of their Sainsbury’s bird, which appeared to have a green tinge.
He fumed: “Thanks @sainsburys for the rancid, foul-smelling, green turkey. Such a lovely way to end 2020.”
Another also hit out at Sainsbury’s, telling them the turkey “smells awful” and had “gone brown”.
“Xmas dinner without the turkey,” they said.
“Bad enough we are alone but now this.
“In date and kept in the fridge. Awful. Chicken fillets instead.”
One woman claimed: “Absolutely gutted to find my turkey I brought from Sainsbury’s is off!”
And another user claimed their Tesco bird was “rotten and smelling” and “yellow” when they went to pop it in the oven.
Tesco and Aldi encouraged shoppers to return their turkeys to store for investigation, while Sainsbury’s says it’s looking into a “very small number of complaints”.
Lidl has been approached for comment.
