Sainsbury’s has defended its new minced beef packaging after some shoppers complained the meat turned to mush.
The store said the ground beef is vacuum-packed to use 55% less plastic.
It came after shoppers expressed their dislike, with one saying the meat now resembled “a rectangle of mashed cuts” and another “someone’s kidney”.
The meat was packaged in a foil-covered plastic tray, but Sainsbury’s has now printed brochures to explain the eco-friendly change.
The supermarket had announced it would be “the first UK retailer to vacuum pack all its ground beef, saving 450 tonnes of plastic every year”.
Vicki Cole from Huddersfield buys an average of four 750g packs of ground beef a month for her batch cooking.
“Ground beef is really versatile and reheats well, so I make a lot of cottage pie, lasagna, chili and a keema curry,” she said.
But she spotted the difference while doing her grocery shopping.
“I looked and there was a lady stocking the fridges and she said, ‘It’s new packaging but it’s the exact same minced meat’ so out of necessity I put two packs in my shopping cart .”
When Ms Cole opened the pack at home, she said it looked “pretty unappetizing”.
“They sucked out all the air and crushed it so it fell out of the packet and into the frying pan in a big rectangular lump,” she said.
“When I started breaking it up with the wooden spatula, it stayed in big balls that cooked on the outside but not on the inside.”
Ms Cole said it took her 40 minutes to cook, so she was tougher and tougher.
She said Sainsbury’s offered her a refund in Nectar points, which she will accept, but said she wanted the store to reconsider the change.
“I understand that we need to use less plastic,” she said. “But if they don’t find an alternative that works, they will lose customers because I won’t buy them there. You have to listen to the feedback.”
Ms Cole was not alone – other shoppers have posted photos and comments on social media.
Sam Bowman, Sainsbury’s buyer, tweeted that he was “not a fan of the new Sainsbury’s mince pack”.
“Feels very medicinal — like I just bought someone’s kidney to cook at home,” he added.
Another customer tweeted that the new packs had “no chopped texture at all.”
They received a response from Sainsbury’s saying “the new packaging process makes the minced meat more compact than before”.
“It requires more breaking up the pan with the back of a spoon or spatula,” reads the response from Sainsbury’s official Twitter account.
Another customer who tweeted that he was “repelled by the vacuum-packed ground beef” told Sainsbury’s, “The packaging is also smaller, which helps customers use their freezer and fridge space more efficiently.”
Other buyers didn’t mince words when they wrote reviews on Sainsbury’s website.
One review, headed “Dog wouldn’t like that,” called the ground beef “disgusting.”
“Looks like a rectangle of crushed cuts,” they wrote.
Another wrote: “The new packaging is awful, it makes the ground beef gooey. It is very difficult to cook and smells, looks very unappetizing. I would not recommend it.”
Steve Dresser, chief executive of retail consultancy Grocery Insight, said: “It’s fair to say the change wasn’t well received at all.”
He said that while sustainability is important to customers, “it’s a very fine balance.”
“This looks like a simple step that doesn’t require customers to do anything differently,” he said.
“But the packaging appears to have negatively impacted product quality, which has clearly impacted customers.”
A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said: “We are always looking for new ways to innovate packaging to meet our ambitious plastic reduction goals.
“Our new vacuum-packed ground beef packaging uses 55% less plastic and saves over 450 tons of plastic per year without compromising taste or quality.”
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