Sainsbury’s defends itself after new mince packaging accused of looking like ‘someone’s kidney’

People aren't happy about the new mince packaging at Sainsbury's, complaining that it makes the meat end up looking like 'someone's kidney'.

If you're an aficionado of buying mince from a supermarket, and being honest who isn't, then you'll know that it comes in a plastic tray covered in a thin film and that's the way it's been for ages.

Change can be a new and scary concept for people and altering the packaging of mince to do away with the plastic tray is a revolution that some folks just aren't ready to accept.

It's a bit like name changes to products, as Sainsbury's was recently asked to switch away from a 'sexist' name for one of their steaks.

Sainsbury's recently announced that from now on, they'll be vacuum packing all of their mince to save 55 percent of the plastic packaging, with the supermarket saying it'll save them about 450 tonnes of plastic each year.

Twitter/@GizmoShikari

That sounds like a lot of good done for the environment, but people are struggling to accept buying mince that isn't nestled in the safe and cosy protection of a plastic tray.

Big changes can be harder to accept when they seem to make things worse, and a slew of unhappy shoppers took to social media to vent their frustrations with Sainsbury's for ditching most of their mince packaging.

One person wrote that the supermarket was engaging in 'stupid, pointless greenwashing', as the claimed Sainsbury's had ditched 'the 55 percent that's actually recyclable'.

They also argued that they'd made everything worse with the food as 'vacuum packed beef doesn't brown properly', and if you know anything about cooking with mince you'll know that's catastrophic.

Another disgruntled shopper slammed it as 'the worst mince I have ever seen in my life' and insisted they 'won't be buying that again'.

Twitter/@JoannaAndrew70

Someone else sent Sainsbury's a picture of mince in a plastic tray, telling the supermarket 'this is what mince should look like'.

Lots of complaints centred over what happened to the mince in the vacuum packaging, as apparently when you open it up it's pretty solid and hard to break up.

People have said the mince was like 'a solid brick' once you do get it out of the packaging and takes ages to actually break up into smaller amounts of meat.

Others have compared it to a block of 'sausage meat' and 'compacted mush' with none of the lovely texture that you get with a good bit of mince.

Not everybody was unhappy with their vacuum packed mince though, as some praised Sainsbury's for a job 'well done' in cutting down on their plastic packaging.

Twitter/@freddiefoulds

Another said that despite the appearance what was actually inside the packaging was 'really good quality' and 'cooks lovely'.

There were plenty who liked the idea of cutting down on plastic packaging but thought Sainsbury's had just got it slightly wrong, pointing towards Waitrose as an example of vacuum packed mince done better.

The supermarket have since responded to the criticism, defending itself over the measures taken to cut down on packaging waste while insisting that the food inside is unchanged.

They said: "We are always looking for new ways to innovate packaging to meet our ambitious plastic reduction targets.

"Our new vacuum-packed beef mince packaging uses 55 percent less plastic and saves over 450 tonnes of plastic a year, without impacting taste or quality."

LADbible has contacted Sainsbury's for further comment.