Sainsbury's makes major change to more mince meat products despite customer backlash

The supermarket chain has announced that it will be swapping its traditional, plastic tray packaging for a new vacuum-packed alternative across its entire fresh lamb mince range

Sasinrbuy's has expanded its controversial packaging change to its mince meat products with lamb mince now being sold vacuum-packed.

The supermarket chain has announced that it will be swapping its traditional, plastic tray packaging for a new vacuum-packed alternative across its entire fresh lamb mince range. Sainsbury's says the move will help reduce its plastic waste by saving 26 tonnes annually. The change will be across all Sainsbury’s fresh lamb mince products, which start at £3.95 for 250g and customers will be able to purchase lamb mince in the revamped packaging both in-store and online from today.

Sainsbury's says the change will reduce plastic per product by a minimum of 65% with the new packaging containing the same amount of lamb mince as before. It also noted that the lamb would last longer as it has removed all oxygen which causes the product to spoil more quickly. It also allows the product to "last better" in the freezer.

The supermarket noted that the quality of the product will remain the same and there will be new QR codes on the packaging to provide advice on how to cook the mince.

The supermarket chain first introduced vacuum packaging for its beef mince products back in 2023. The move was met with significant backlash from the British public who claimed the vacuum-packed packaging made the mince turn to "mush". However, other major UK supermarket chains soon followed and introduced the packaging into stores including Aldi, Asda, Tesco, Co-Op, and Nisa.

Richard Crampton, Director of Fresh Food at Sainsbury’s said: “We know customers want us to reduce plastic packaging and that’s why we’re committed to making bold changes which benefit the environment as well as helping customers to reduce plastic waste at home. Once again, we’re the first major supermarket to switch to vacuum packed packaging on a popular product that our customers buy week in, week out. This change more than halves the plastic used in our lamb mince range.”

The new packaging will be recyclable in-store at supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s flexible plastic recycling collection points available in all of its supermarkets. Most recently, Sasinbury's has changed packaging to its fresh-baked products across its stores. Over the coming months, products including pastries, doughnuts and baguettes from Sainbury's in-store bakery will have entirely cardboard and paper packaging.

Doughnuts are switching to card boxes with a small window and twin-pack pastries, as well as croissants and cinnamon swirls, are moving to paper bags from the plastic clam-shell style packaging before. Bread loaves, baguettes and batons will now have recyclable paper bags with a plastic window compared to full plastic bags before. The measures are all part of the supermarkets chain's efforts to reduce plastic waste in its stores.