The True Story Behind Aldi's Unsettling Meat Controversy

After more than a century of being in business, Aldi has shown that it knows how to weather a PR storm or two. There are a ton of myths about Aldi, from rumors about poor-quality produce (plenty of people on social media disagree and love the chain's produce offerings) to confusion over whether its dupes of brand-name products taste like the real thing (a ton of them are on point). One rumor about the German-founded discount grocer has unfortunately been proven true, however — Aldi accidentally sold horse meat in its stores in 2013. 

The chain was unaware that the products it purchased from its supplier — a French food-processing company called Comigel — contained horse meat. Two Aldi products — Today's Special frozen spaghetti bolognese and Today's Special frozen beef lasagna — were found to contain horse meat instead of beef. In some cases, the beef in the products was completely replaced by horse meat. These products never made it Stateside and were only sold at European Aldi locations. Where exactly the horse meat came from is a little fuzzy, as Comigel didn't take a ton of responsibility and instead pointed the finger at its own French and Romanian suppliers. 

Aldi is still a beloved supermarket chain throughout the United States (and the rest of the world) despite the horse meat scandal. The chain's honesty might have been key in maintaining a positive reputation with customers — Aldi was upfront with customers about the issue and didn't try to sweep it under the rug. According to a 2013 article in The Guardian, a spokesperson for Aldi stated, "This is completely unacceptable and like other affected companies, we feel angry and let down by our supplier. If the label says beef, our customers expect it to be beef. Suppliers are absolutely clear that they are required to meet our stringent specifications and that we do not tolerate any failure to do so." 

The incident resulted in several individuals within the supply chain being charged with fraud, but there were no significant illnesses, despite concerns over the possible presence of potentially dangerous veterinary drugs being in the meat. Unfortunately, the horse meat saga was hardly the only major Aldi scandal involving tainted product shipments — in 2019, $28 million of cocaine was found in banana crates shipped to the grocery store. Shockingly, this wasn't the first time cocaine was found in Aldi banana shipments. A shipment of bananas and cocaine arrived to Aldi locations in Germany in 2014, and similar incidents occurred in 2015. While Aldi continues to deliver great prices on groceries (and on Aisle of Shame products, obviously), we're particularly impressed with its PR team's ability to be straightforward with customers — even when it'd be easier to handle issues discreetly.