Sainsbury's shoppers slam new packaging that leaves meat 'mushy' and 'unappetising'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Sainsbury's has been forced to defend its new minced beef packaging after it caused outrage with shoppers who slammed it for turning the meat to mush.

The supermarket giant recently switched the meat packaging to a vacuum pack in a move that would use 55 percent less plastic than the previous containers.

Sainsbury's recently printed out leaflets explaining the packaging change and claimed it was the first UK retailer to vacuum-pack all beef, saving 450-tonnes of plastic every year, reports BirminghamLive.Despite the good intentions, the vac-pack has been met with some criticism from shoppers who have said that the meat is now "unappetising" and "mushy."Vicki Cole from Huddersfield, who buys on average four 750g packs of mince per month for batch cooking, recently spoke to the BBC after spotting the difference and noticed it was "pretty unappetising.""They've sucked all the air out and squashed it so it plopped out of the packet and into the frying pan in a big rectangular clump," she said.She then went on to further explain how the mince stayed in big balls while she tried to break the mince up and that it took her 40 minutes longer to cook, which led to it being tougher and chewier.

She has since been offered and accepted a refund in Nectar Points from Sainsbury's, but has said she wants the supermarket to rethink its eco-friendly change. "I get that we need to use less plastic," she said. "But unless they find an alternative that's going to work they're going to lose customers because I shan't be buying it from there.