Customers have complained that their Christmas meals were ruined by "horrendous" Aldi turkeys which smelt like a "dead rat".

Four families who purchased their turkeys from the chain's Welshpool store complained.

John Firth's family, of nine, from Guilsfield, was one of them. John's son purchased the bird for the Christmas dinner. "He opened the packaging on Christmas morning and didn't like the look of it nor the smell. It must have been bad for him to have noticed as he eats anything, he also worked in a butchers some years ago," he said.

Thankfully, after posting about it on Facebook, some friends came forward to give the family a joint of pork. Their turkey was refunded on December 27 and they were given flowers and a bottle of wine.

John said: "I don't believe it was a problem at ALDI but further back and I hope ALDI do trace it."

"It was like a dead rat" was the verdict of one child who smelt the Christmas turkey as the oven door was opened: the son of the County Times' chief photographer.

"Our Christmas Day was ruined," said Phil, who enjoys cooking the family festive treat.

"I opened the oven door and the smell was horrendous," he said.

"My son said it was like a dead rat."

Phil has been in touch with Aldi who offered him a £20 voucher "as a gesture of good will".

George Kennedy wrote a poem inspired by his family's experience of "stinking Aldi turkey crown".

Within it, George also compared the smell of his turkey to a rat and joked that "all is well, if we ignore the bloody smell".

One stanza read:

"Oven hot, simmering pot, festive meal all sides prepared

but what a smell, now getting scared

what kind of carcase would smell so foul

within the fridge a putrid fowl."

An Aldi spokesperson said: "We are sorry that, in a small number of instances, we did not meet our usual high-quality standards. Customers can return any product that they are not satisfied with to their nearest store for a full refund."