Families in the North East have claimed that their Christmas was "ruined" after allegedly receiving rotten turkeys from the shops. 

After unpackaging their food on Christmas Day, countless people claimed to have made the 'grim' discovery' and have gone on to share their rotten turkey on social media. 

Complaints first started about the meat after one person posted online about their bad experience, saying: "Literally, what the hell is this? I just defrosted my Turkey and this happened.

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"Christmas is ruined - this is actually a joke. Not only is there no meat, the house smells of rotten meat - it's not acceptable."

Meanwhile, others faced similar issues as they tried to prepare their turkeys and commented on the original post.

One person said: "What the bloody hell. My turkey is rotten. Christmas is ruined, and the kids are crying. We now have to have beans on toast. An absolute disgrace," while another added: "Just got my turkey out the fridge to stuff it and prep it for tomorrow's big Christmas dinner for the bird to absolutely stink. Gave it 15mins to see if the smell would go only for it to get worse.

"Very disappointing considering it would've been the centrepiece."

It wasn't just those select few, though. People who were cooking for as many as 13 people had to change their plans after they found out their turkeys were rotten.

Posting online, one person said: "Oh wow - this is a pretty poor show! Fresh turkey dated 27th December and it's bad. Slimy skin with yellowing patches and smells off. That will put a downer on tomorrow's Christmas dinner for 13!"

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So far, supermarkets have been commenting back to some customers - promising to look into each individual case. 

A Morrisons spokesperson has also said: "Our quality team taste tests 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."