Shoppers have criticized major supermarkets including Aldi and Sainsbury’s for changing a small detail on the packaging of some of their meats, saying they “hate it”.
Jamie Devine, who lives in Scotland, made a trip to the budget German supermarket to buy some groceries and was surprised when she arrived at the meat aisle.
The store has introduced vacuum-packaged packaging for minced meat, following in the footsteps of Sainsbury’s.
The personal trainer said: ‘What is Aldi doing? Vacuum packaging minced meat, what is it about? Fix this as soon as possible.’
Aldi announced in 2023 that it planned to trial this type of packaging in a bid to reduce up to 73 percent of plastic, however it is unclear if it has already been rolled out to all stores.
The store claimed the packaging could increase the shelf life of minced meat, “without affecting taste or quality.”
However, many other customers criticized the chain for altering the plastic casing and claimed it had put them off eating minced meat altogether.
One wrote: “It sucks, the texture has completely changed and I can’t use it now.”
Jamie Devine, who lives in Scotland, took a trip to the budget German supermarket to do some shopping and was surprised when she arrived at the meat aisle.
Store introduces vacuum packaging for minced meat, following in Sainsbury’s footsteps
Another said: ‘I thought the same thing was where the hell is the mince?’
A third commented: “I was really disappointed at Aldi when I first saw them.”
Jamie then went to a Tesco store to see if they had changed the packaging, but the store still had the original hard plastic wrapping.
He said he preferred the old packaging, adding that the new packaging “looks amazing.”
Jamie wanted to see if the minced meat tasted or smelled different, so he decided to buy it and cook a pasta dish in a separate video.
He said he found it “a lot” easier to open, but that it was harder to break the meat once it was cooking in the pan.
Jamie said it didn’t smell different, but added: “I don’t know if it’s just in my head because everyone says it tastes different, but it doesn’t taste bad… just different.”
The first supermarket to introduce vacuum packaging was Sainsbury’s in February 2023, when it announced it would vacuum package all minced meat.
Another man, who goes by fasteyes on TikTok, says he planned to go vegan after seeing mince in Sainsbury’s.
The man was shown holding the block of vacuum-packed British lamb mince.
Many other customers criticized the chain for altering the plastic casing, saying it had put them off eating minced meat altogether.
Another user had their say on Jamie’s video, writing: ‘Since Sainsbury’s did this I’ve pretty much stopped eating mince. It’s not cooked the same way.’
Sainsbury’s said this has saved them 450 tonnes of plastic each year with a minimum 55 per cent reduction of plastic in each product.
Another man, who goes by fasteyes on TikTok, says he planned to go vegan after seeing mince in Sainsbury’s.
He wrote: ‘Point of view: Sainsbury’s has a plot to make you vegan with its new meat packaging. I’m going vegan.’
He was then shown holding the block of vacuum-packed British lamb mince.
In June 2023, Lidl customers rebelled against vacuum-packed minced meat, saying it looked like “disgusting porridge”.
Lidl customers were equally concerned about the quality of their minced meat, as one person said: “Very sad news as it is horrible and very difficult to divide minced meat into smaller pieces.” Tried it once and will never buy again!’
Another posted: “Tried once but never again, hope other supermarkets don’t follow suit.”
Aldi and Sainsburys have been contacted for comment.