SHOPPERS have been left fuming after discovering supermarkets are now selling their mince meat in vacuumed packaging.
Six months ago, Iceland repackaged its beef and pork mince range into airtight vacuum packaging.
It was designed to contain 50% less plastic and sought to reduce the retailer’s annual consumption by 35 tonnes.
At the same time, it was said to keep the products fresh for approximately two and a half weeks – increasing product shelf life by almost 50% – and allow more packs to fit into one delivery truck, thus cutting down on carbon emissions and ensuring a consistent supply.
Several other retailers were making the same move.
Lidl’s transition into vacuum-packed beef mince was intended to lower its plastic consumption by 63% and save 250 tonnes every year, while Asda foresaw a 60-tonne reduction of plastic in its annual operations when it vacuum-packed its own beef mince range in 60% less plastic.
The redesigns, however, have not been a major hit amongst shoppers, one of whom recently took to TikTok to rant about the ”disgusting” concept.
The foodie, only known as @yorkshirebargainhunter, had purchased the Ashfields British Reduced Fat Beef Mince 10% from Aldi, where it sells for £3.09 – however, he was horrified by the ”rank” state of the meat.
Opening the packaging and demonstrating its contents inside, the shopper said: ”This is absolutely disgusting. I didn’t know that they started vacuum-packing mince.
”What the hell is that?” he said whilst poking the raw meat.
”Now that to me… What even is it? That is rank.
”I get it’s the same product but it’s just like glue. It’s not even like proper mince.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Look inside Tracey’s freezer stocked with half-price meat” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6365163042112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]”What have they done to it? It’s absolutely rank. I’m fuming about this.”
The shopper claimed he was going to whip up ”mince and mash” – however, the state of the vacuum-packed meat had put him off.
”I’ve never know for mince to look like that,” the Aldi customer vented before binning the product.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D105654%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]‘I refuse to buy it like that’
The Yorkshire-based shopper is not the only one horrified by the new eco-conscious concept which has since been branded ”absolutely revolting”.
One foodie who had purchased the vacuum-packed meat said: ”It does not break up like proper mince.”
Someone else agreed, writing: ”it’s absolutely revolting, it’s does not separate and doesn’t taste the same.”
A third chimed in: ”Marks n Spencer don’t pack like that and it’s cheaper.”
”It looks like play dough,” another joked.
”We’ve had it in our Sainsbury’s for at least two years and have no issues with it yeah it takes a bit more time to chop up in the pan, but I think it tastes the same,” a foodie commented.
‘The classic mince packaging is back!’
Following the huge backlash, Iceland has decided to re-instate its traditional plastic trays.
Sharing the news on X, it declared that “you asked, we delivered. The classic mince packaging is back!”
One user praised the move, commenting that vacuum packaging “made the meat mush” and caused it to look “unappealing”.
“Will definitely be getting our mince meat from [Iceland] from now on, since you’re the only retailer that seems to listen to customers,” they said.
Others agreed that the redesigned packaging “made the product look unappealing and horrible”, and that the return to plastic trays is a “good move”.
Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme – Sun Club