Alexandra Murphy, 56, was forced to throw out her turkey on Christmas day when their bird bought from Asda turned out to be “rancid” and slimy to touch

A mum has told how her family’s Christmas was ruined after they had to throw away a “rancid” and slimy Asda turkey.

The family, from Angmering, Sussex, were left horrified at what should have been the centre piece of the Christmas dinner.

Mum-of-three Alexandra Murphy was forced to bin her turkey after it stunk out the entire house, SussexLive reported .

The 56-year-old labelled the turkey as “rancid” and said it was slimy.

She was cooking Christmas dinner for herself and her three sons, aged 21, 18, and 16 when she took the turkey out of its packaging.

Her sons noticed the horrid smell coming from the bird.

The turkey was inside its sell-by date and had been kept in the fridge since being bought.

Alexandra said: “We didn’t have a turkey on Christmas Day. The only thing that had turkey that day was the bin.”

Alexandra’s brother actually bought the turkey for her as part of a Christmas gift – he bought the turkey along with some other Christmas food, and she went to Asda Ferring to collect it on December 21.

The turkey, which cost a princely £21.81, was put straight into Alexandra’s fridge that morning, but she says that by the time Christmas morning rolled around the turkey had become “rancid”.

The family had also collected gammon and sausage meat from Asda and stored it in the same fridge, but it was only the turkey which had turned rotten.

“The turkey was slimy inside the packet. The smell was rotten too, you could smell it all the way upstairs in the bedrooms,” Alexandra said.

She tried to ring up Asda’s support line but was unable to get through, and still had not received a reply by Monday morning (December 27).

Alexandra, who has worked with food in the past, said she has never seen a turkey like this in her life.

“I’ve worked in pubs before and handled tons and tons of meat, and I have never ever seen anything like this before,” Alexandra said.

“I was told to keep it and take it back, but there was no way I was keeping that in my house. It went from the tray to the garden to the bin.”

Despite throwing away the turkey, Alexandra is still worried about getting ill from contamination in her kitchen.

“I’ve washed the oven down and the tray down and the inside of the fridge, you get paranoid of cross contamination,” she said.

However, Alexandra says she doesn’t blame Asda for the mishap, and thinks that the issue goes beyond just her turkey.

“I shop from Asda all the time, it’s my local store. If they didn’t open the package then they wouldn’t have known, it must be a problem with the farm.

“If someone else has eaten this, or even touched it, this could make someone seriously ill. There’s a big salmonella risk.

“There must be more people than just me that have had this problem.”

Despite the big disappointment with the turkey, the family refused to let their day be ruined.

“We missed out on the turkey but we had the gammon instead still,” she said.

“I wouldn’t say what other people have said, that it completely ruined my Christmas.

“There’s more to eat in this house than one turkey.”

Asda have been approached for comment.