ASDA is making a controversial change in store and shoppers will be divided.
The supermarket has announced that it will introduce vacuum-pack mince packaging to save plastic.
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Asda said on Friday it is replacing the traditional plastic trays across its Just Essentials beef mince range with a lighter plastic film alternative.
It follows Sainsbury’s, which was forced to defend the new mince packaging that it introduced early last year after shoppers criticised it as “disgusting”, “vile”, and “too compressed”.
In August, Tesco announced it would be trialling a switch to “pillow packs” for its mince products, eschewing the controversial vacuum packs.
Asda said the new packaging, available in stores and online, contains 60% less plastic than previous versions and can be recycled through collection points in 250 of its largest stores.
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The supermarket said it will help remove 67.6 tonnes of plastic from its supply chain annually.
The vacuum-pack packaging method removes the oxygen, which typically causes a product to eventually spoil, meaning the product has a longer shelf life than before it was added.
The supermarket aims to make the packaging of all its own-label products recyclable by 2025, with its latest sustainability report saying it had reached 93%.
Jon Wells, sustainable packaging manager at Asda, said: “We’re always looking at new ways that we can make positive changes which will benefit both our customers and the planet, and we believe that this is one of those changes.
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“Not only does this improve shelf life and provide greater convenience for our customers, it also removes tonnes of non-recyclable plastic from our supply chain, reducing our carbon footprint.”
Sainsbury’s was the first to announce the change in March 2023 across its 600 stores.
Co-op also switched up its beef packaging in May 2023 for environmental reasons – and it’s currently rolling out the vacuum-sealed versions across its 2,500 UK stores.
The change affects 11 Co-op meat products altogether.
Lidl followed in June 2023 and started packing its beef mince in vacuum-sealed plastic rather than plastic trays with film lids.
Elsewhere, other supermarkets have made changes recently in a bid to cut costs and be more environmentally friendly.
Posh shop Waitrose ditched its red, blue and green milk caps last summer.
Meanwhile, Aldi has been trialling the switch since August, ditching its coloured caps.
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More than 300 fruit and veg products no longer have best before dates on them at Marks & Spencer.
And Asda ditched the dates from almost 250 of its fresh fruit and vegetable products in September 2022.
