Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, has apologised after customers complained that the retailer’s Christmas turkeys were “rancid” and “rotten.”

Many who purchased the turkey — which costs up to £59 in the store’s Finest range — took to social media to share photos of the poultry.

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Kirsten Shore from Staffordshire, who also purchased a turkey from Tesco wrote on Facebook:

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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, rancid 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!

The smell was enough to make some customers throw the turkey away before putting it into the oven, while those who did cook the meat said it tasted like “bleach”.

When it doubt, order a takeaway

One Twitter user, Jase @SappninBitton, decided to order an emergency Chinese takeaway for his family in Glasgow after he discovered that their turkey was rotten.

We will investigate

A Tesco spokesperson said that the supermarket plans to investigate why the poor quality meat was sold:

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.

Meanwhile, disappointed consumers have been refunded.