Sainsbury's makes another change to meat packaging - after 'mush' mince outrage

05 July 2023 , 14:36

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The move is part of Sainsbury's plan to reduce its plastic waste (Image: Sainsbury’s)

Sainsbury's has removed plastic trays from its "by Sainsbury’s" steak range, replacing them with cardboard instead.

The major UK supermarket chain said the move would help reduce the amount of plastic per tray by 70% and would save 249 tonnes of plastic each year.

Sainsbury's says the trays can also be recycled by rinsing the cardboard before placing it in a kerbside recycling bin.

The new trays have launched across 10 products in the range and are available in all Sainsbury's stores from today.

This is actually not an entirely new move from Sainsbury's - as it has previously swapped plastic for cardboard trays in its premium Taste The Difference and So Organic steak ranges.

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Claire Hughes, director of product and innovation at Sainsbury’s, said: “As part of our Plan for Better commitments, we are trying to reduce plastic packaging across our own brand ranges, as we know that reducing plastic is important to our customers but also on our environmental impact.

"It’s why we are always looking at ways to innovate our packaging and reduce or replace plastic wherever we can, as quickly as we can.

"We’re pleased to save another 10 million pieces of plastic a year by swapping our by Sainsbury’s steak trays to cardboard following the changes we have already made on So Organic and Taste the Difference packaging.

"While we are making good progress, we know there is more to do and we are committed to making bold changes that help us achieve our plastic reduction targets.”

The announcement is the latest in a string of changes made by the retailer on its plastic packaging.

In April, the chain removed its plastic trays from its whole chickens and before this controversially started to sell its own brand beef mince in vacuum packaging.

The supermarket chain said the new packaging uses 55% less plastic than the traditional plastic tray covered with film.

Customers, however, flocked to social media to share their "disgust" at the new packaging.

Some said the packaging change made the meat turn to "mush" and another said it was the "nearest thing to baby food" and "was horrible".

NIsa and Coop also later introduced vacuum packaging as one of their plastic waste-reducing tactics.

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