Asda is changing its mince packaging after fury at Sainsbury's over 'mush' meat

02 February 2024 , 14:11

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Asda is introducing the new mince meat packaging to cut plastic waste

Asda is to start vacuum-packing its mince meat to help cut plastic waste - in a similar move to rival Sainsbury's.

The new packaging is available across the Just Essentials beef range and contains 60% less plastic. It follows an identical decision by rival Sainsbury’s which was forced to defend its new mince packaging after shoppers called it “disgusting” and said it turns the meat to “mush”.

Asda is introducing the new-look mince packaging in stores and online from today. The supermarket says the change will remove 67.6 tonnes of plastic from its supply chain each year, with shoppers able to recycle the packaging through in-store collection points in Asda stores.

Jon Wells, Sustainable Packaging Manager at Asda, said: “We’re always looking at new ways that we can make positive changes which will benefit both our customers and the planet, and we believe that this is one of those changes. Not only does this improve shelf life and provide greater convenience for our customers, it also removes tonnes of non-recyclable plastic from our supply chain, reducing our carbon footprint.”

The latest update from Asda comes after the supermarket announced 82 of its petrol station sites will be axing manned checkouts. It means drivers will only be able to pay at the pump and face a temporary £100 "pre-authorisation" charge. This is where money is "temporarily" held on your account until the end of the transaction when the correct amount should be debited.

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According to both Visa and Mastercard, the money should be returned to you completely within a few minutes. Asda will complete the changeover by summer, and said all staff working at these sites will be redeployed to its attached Asda superstore. Asda has 300 forecourts attached to its superstores and over half of these sites are already "unmanned".

An Asda spokesperson said: “As more than 90% of all payments on our Superstore forecourts are made via card or a contactless device, the colleagues who worked on these sites are moving into the store so they can better serve our customers. These conversions began in December and we expect to complete the changeover later in 2024.”

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