>”As I started breaking it up with the wooden spatula it was staying in big balls that were cooking on the outside but not the inside.”
I tend to find that happens anyway [with normally packed mince ] if I don’t break it up with my hands.
As for the vac packing, well if you squeeze mince together, you get a burger. It actually looks like the stuff I used to put through the mincer, to make mince.
I hate this change. It just one lump now and the texture is awful. It’s like trying to break up a lump of spam.
The people in this article are as thick as mince. It’s a weird outrage. It’s like she just didn’t bother to break up the mince and said LOOK it’s not doing what it’s supposed to!!
I’ve been put off buying mince from Sainsbury’s since they made this change – I’ve tried it twice, and both times it’s been impossible to break it up enough (frustrating when compared to what you’d have after 30 secs of breaking up the mince from the old packaging). It also looks fairly grim and greyish on the supermarket shelves.
Tbf I am an advocate for trying to reduce waste and plastic but this solution imo doesn’t work.
I actually bought some last week, I was making burgers and it was too compressed which if you’re making a good burger you don’t want to over compact the meat.
I think they’re trying to make a good change but this solution hasn’t worked well.
Edit – maybe they could do this but add air, almost like a pack of crisps?
Looking online I seem to be the only person who isn’t bothered by it? The bolognaise I made last week was just as good and probably all supermarkets will go this way as it’s cheaper packaging
Edit: what I do is to squish if like how you do a bag of rice. I do it for dog food and I guess I’ve just been doing it naturally
The is a great example of some consumers wanting more sustainable packaging, but being wholly unwilling to make any compromise in terms of quality or price.
I order my meat from an online butcher and it’s always come vac packed and it’s never been an issue, Sainsbury’s must be doing something wrong for it to come out as a big blob.
Little/Middle Englanders having a whinge at the lack of convenience when it’s this convenience culture that’s caused a lot of these problems from family run businesses going bust trying to compete against supermarkets to plastic everywhere.
It’s not that hard to break up and if you care that much just go to a proper butcher where they use better quality meat, waxy paper rather than plastic, for little difference in price (sometimes they’re cheaper, about the same and rarely much more expensive). Most will have different grades of mince, including thinner mince which really should be the norm as it’s best for common dishes like Spaghetti Bolognese.
Ridiculous thing to complain about when it’s at least a step in the right direction away from too much useless non-reuseable plastic. The death of supermarket butchers, deli-counters etc, although ironic, would have helped with this as well.
I don’t like it because I usually open the mince, cut it in half, use half today and keep the rest in the container and use it the next day, which doesn’t work well with these.
It’s definitely more annoying to break apart than when it was packaged differently but I haven’t really noticed any taste difference or issues during cooking etc so I don’t particularly mind it
Forget the mince.
This packaging is ridiculous – they went from recyclable trays with a bit of non-recyclable film to this nonsense. You can only send it to landfill.
Another green-washing, tick-box exercise that decreases the availability for post-use recycling.
Vac pac is great for many things – such as steaks, or larger joints of meat. Vac pack for mince is awful as it loses all of its texture due to the pressure.
I have used it as we normally shop at sainsburys and it is not great. If my suppliers sent this to me in the kitchen I work in, I’d send it back. We use vac pacs at work – but would never do it for something like mince lmao.
I can see what they are trying to do by reducing waste/plastic but – but using it on mince is not the best application of it – unless you like squashed mince beef square.
Cooked my first bolognese with this the other day and didn’t think it was a big issue. Yes I had to spend a bit more time breaking it up than usual but the end product was the same.
The only slightly disconcerting thing for me was the sort of post apocalyptic nutrient block vibe it gave off.
“When Mrs Cole opened the pack at home she said it looked “pretty unappetising”.
What? Its mashed up animal flesh and fat. What were you expecting? A hand reared petting zoo cow called Dolly with farts smelling of Eau de toilette and shit like the finest mash potato?
The steak and salmon I buy is vaccuum sealed to a piece of cardboard. It works because those things are pretty solid. But mince is delicate. Why would they start doing this with mince, and not with something more robust like chicken breasts?
The best way to get them to listen is no just not buy it.
I had the pleasure of these just last week.
Must say I am not a fan of the result but they did seem to reduce packaging and I don’t have any complaints about that.
If they take the feedback and improve it slightly then it will be as good as others but with less packaging.
This effect could well be caused not just by vacuum packing but vacuum packing after they add the water and polymer (often methocel) to the product to bulk the weight, it gives the meat a slightly slimy feel to it and we have become to think this is normal, if you have ever raised and killed a chicken you will know how different the meat feels and tastes.
Source: worked with polymers for 20 years.
>Mrs Cole said it took her 40 minutes to cook and was therefore tougher and chewier.
Putting thoughts about the packaging to one side, how on earth has it taken this person 40 minutes to fry a pack of mince?!
I made a batch of chilli with it last Saturday. It was more difficult to break up but I didn’t have a problem cooking it.
I wonder if taking it out of the packaging and leaving it to get up to room temperature first would help.
You omnis are actually gonna eat this shit? Wow gg guys we really are all fucked huh.
This is how gusto send their mince. It’s not a problem at all.
I’ve only bought one of these vacuum packed minced beef from Sainsbury’s and it was fine.
I think some people just don’t like change.
Gousto vac-packs their meats all the time and mince, never any issues. This is a Sainsbury’s water issue.
People just don’t like change.
It’s the same with the captive bottle tops, you’d think that they had smeared dogshit on every bottle by some peoples reactions.
The public: “we need to reduce plastic waste!”
Also the public: “We need to reduce plastic waste that we approve of!”
They can try and differ blame and say they’re saving packaging but other people have done it better and it’s clear they’re lying.
What if
*smokes joint*
We grind and package the beef at the counter and store the rest?
Doesn’t even look like mince, it looks like ground beef with added water.
I always vac pack my packs of mince and it never comes out like the new Sainsburys one
If people are truly concerned about the environmental impact of their purchases then they wouldn’t be buying meat in the first place (nor selling it from the supplier’s perspective).
Here’s an idea! How about you get rid of pre-packaged meat on the shelves?
A lot of supermarkets already have a small butchery. Make that more common.
Want to go green? Source it all locally.
Does it make meat more expensive? Maybe. But that’s even greener and it will reduce consumption.
I get my meat from a local butcher. I know its sourced locally, and is fresh, and i can get the cuts in any shape/size I want. It costs more but I am happy to pay that.
not only does it turn your mince into a big red jobbie, the tray the mince came on before was recyclable, this bag isnt.
Looks like shit lmao what genius came up with this solution
Reminds me of, Sainsbury’s Basics Smoked Salmon. Which is off cuts, vacummed packed together and then impossible to seperate out. So your sandwiches end up just having big lumps in them, in some places and zero coverage for most of the sandwich.
If you look on Sainsburys website (not sure what it was before the vacuum pack) but it’s now a blend of fresh and frozen mince.
>”Feels very medical – like I’ve just bought someone’s kidney to cook at home,” he added.
Some of these people feel icky about eating someone’s kidneys but not about eating their mashed up muscles? Ok…
It doesn’t really surprise me that someone buying minced beef isn’t willing to accept reduced plastic use. Beef is terrible for the environment as it is plastic or no.
It’s disgusting. Will not buy until changed back. The quality is no longer there.
It’s sainsbury trying to greenwash. It’s cheaper for them that’s the bottom line.
I’m all for them doing though but they clearly need to do it better so mince is still mince. Not some giant blob.
There seem to be loads of comments on here defending this change or at least commenting that the vac-packed meat is fine and people are just resistant to change. I have to imagine that there have been multiple batches and those people posting have just been lucky enough to get “the good stuff”.
I’ve bought a few of these vac-packed minces from Sainos down south (Winchester) over the last few weeks now and in every case I completely agree with the complaint – it is absolute dogshit. The mince isn’t mince any more, it’s just turned into a solid lump of meat paste. You *can* break it down, but it takes a lot mroe work and will only break down really fine, which is ok (though still not ideal) for a meat sauce like a bolognaise, but for anything where you really need a coarse grind because the texture of the meat matters – like making a burger for example – it is fucking awful.
I also don’t believe for a second that this is about reducing plastic waste. This will be a decision made to cut costs.
They should just sell it by the handful and customers can take in home in whatever they want. I generally only need a pocketful for my tea as I live alone.
the true crime here is using 5% fat mince, do you hate flavour that much?
They have had to make the mince the consistency of raw dog food to pump it in. You have to cook it for ages on a low heat or it lumps together. It’s not good.
Tbf I think people just need to get used to it. A lot of meat will come like this, perhaps it’s just new and poeple don’t like the initial look and feel of it.
43 comments
>”As I started breaking it up with the wooden spatula it was staying in big balls that were cooking on the outside but not the inside.”
I tend to find that happens anyway [with normally packed mince ] if I don’t break it up with my hands.
As for the vac packing, well if you squeeze mince together, you get a burger. It actually looks like the stuff I used to put through the mincer, to make mince.
I hate this change. It just one lump now and the texture is awful. It’s like trying to break up a lump of spam.
The people in this article are as thick as mince. It’s a weird outrage. It’s like she just didn’t bother to break up the mince and said LOOK it’s not doing what it’s supposed to!!
I’ve been put off buying mince from Sainsbury’s since they made this change – I’ve tried it twice, and both times it’s been impossible to break it up enough (frustrating when compared to what you’d have after 30 secs of breaking up the mince from the old packaging). It also looks fairly grim and greyish on the supermarket shelves.
Tbf I am an advocate for trying to reduce waste and plastic but this solution imo doesn’t work.
I actually bought some last week, I was making burgers and it was too compressed which if you’re making a good burger you don’t want to over compact the meat.
I think they’re trying to make a good change but this solution hasn’t worked well.
Edit – maybe they could do this but add air, almost like a pack of crisps?
Looking online I seem to be the only person who isn’t bothered by it? The bolognaise I made last week was just as good and probably all supermarkets will go this way as it’s cheaper packaging
Edit: what I do is to squish if like how you do a bag of rice. I do it for dog food and I guess I’ve just been doing it naturally
The is a great example of some consumers wanting more sustainable packaging, but being wholly unwilling to make any compromise in terms of quality or price.
I order my meat from an online butcher and it’s always come vac packed and it’s never been an issue, Sainsbury’s must be doing something wrong for it to come out as a big blob.
Little/Middle Englanders having a whinge at the lack of convenience when it’s this convenience culture that’s caused a lot of these problems from family run businesses going bust trying to compete against supermarkets to plastic everywhere.
It’s not that hard to break up and if you care that much just go to a proper butcher where they use better quality meat, waxy paper rather than plastic, for little difference in price (sometimes they’re cheaper, about the same and rarely much more expensive). Most will have different grades of mince, including thinner mince which really should be the norm as it’s best for common dishes like Spaghetti Bolognese.
Ridiculous thing to complain about when it’s at least a step in the right direction away from too much useless non-reuseable plastic. The death of supermarket butchers, deli-counters etc, although ironic, would have helped with this as well.
I don’t like it because I usually open the mince, cut it in half, use half today and keep the rest in the container and use it the next day, which doesn’t work well with these.
It’s definitely more annoying to break apart than when it was packaged differently but I haven’t really noticed any taste difference or issues during cooking etc so I don’t particularly mind it
Forget the mince.
This packaging is ridiculous – they went from recyclable trays with a bit of non-recyclable film to this nonsense. You can only send it to landfill.
Another green-washing, tick-box exercise that decreases the availability for post-use recycling.
Vac pac is great for many things – such as steaks, or larger joints of meat. Vac pack for mince is awful as it loses all of its texture due to the pressure.
I have used it as we normally shop at sainsburys and it is not great. If my suppliers sent this to me in the kitchen I work in, I’d send it back. We use vac pacs at work – but would never do it for something like mince lmao.
I can see what they are trying to do by reducing waste/plastic but – but using it on mince is not the best application of it – unless you like squashed mince beef square.
Cooked my first bolognese with this the other day and didn’t think it was a big issue. Yes I had to spend a bit more time breaking it up than usual but the end product was the same.
The only slightly disconcerting thing for me was the sort of post apocalyptic nutrient block vibe it gave off.
“When Mrs Cole opened the pack at home she said it looked “pretty unappetising”.
What? Its mashed up animal flesh and fat. What were you expecting? A hand reared petting zoo cow called Dolly with farts smelling of Eau de toilette and shit like the finest mash potato?
The steak and salmon I buy is vaccuum sealed to a piece of cardboard. It works because those things are pretty solid. But mince is delicate. Why would they start doing this with mince, and not with something more robust like chicken breasts?
The best way to get them to listen is no just not buy it.
I had the pleasure of these just last week.
Must say I am not a fan of the result but they did seem to reduce packaging and I don’t have any complaints about that.
If they take the feedback and improve it slightly then it will be as good as others but with less packaging.
This effect could well be caused not just by vacuum packing but vacuum packing after they add the water and polymer (often methocel) to the product to bulk the weight, it gives the meat a slightly slimy feel to it and we have become to think this is normal, if you have ever raised and killed a chicken you will know how different the meat feels and tastes.
Source: worked with polymers for 20 years.
>Mrs Cole said it took her 40 minutes to cook and was therefore tougher and chewier.
Putting thoughts about the packaging to one side, how on earth has it taken this person 40 minutes to fry a pack of mince?!
I made a batch of chilli with it last Saturday. It was more difficult to break up but I didn’t have a problem cooking it.
I wonder if taking it out of the packaging and leaving it to get up to room temperature first would help.
You omnis are actually gonna eat this shit? Wow gg guys we really are all fucked huh.
This is how gusto send their mince. It’s not a problem at all.
I’ve only bought one of these vacuum packed minced beef from Sainsbury’s and it was fine.
I think some people just don’t like change.
Gousto vac-packs their meats all the time and mince, never any issues. This is a Sainsbury’s water issue.
People just don’t like change.
It’s the same with the captive bottle tops, you’d think that they had smeared dogshit on every bottle by some peoples reactions.
The public: “we need to reduce plastic waste!”
Also the public: “We need to reduce plastic waste that we approve of!”
They can try and differ blame and say they’re saving packaging but other people have done it better and it’s clear they’re lying.
What if
*smokes joint*
We grind and package the beef at the counter and store the rest?
Doesn’t even look like mince, it looks like ground beef with added water.
I always vac pack my packs of mince and it never comes out like the new Sainsburys one
If people are truly concerned about the environmental impact of their purchases then they wouldn’t be buying meat in the first place (nor selling it from the supplier’s perspective).
Here’s an idea! How about you get rid of pre-packaged meat on the shelves?
A lot of supermarkets already have a small butchery. Make that more common.
Want to go green? Source it all locally.
Does it make meat more expensive? Maybe. But that’s even greener and it will reduce consumption.
I get my meat from a local butcher. I know its sourced locally, and is fresh, and i can get the cuts in any shape/size I want. It costs more but I am happy to pay that.
not only does it turn your mince into a big red jobbie, the tray the mince came on before was recyclable, this bag isnt.
Looks like shit lmao what genius came up with this solution
Reminds me of, Sainsbury’s Basics Smoked Salmon. Which is off cuts, vacummed packed together and then impossible to seperate out. So your sandwiches end up just having big lumps in them, in some places and zero coverage for most of the sandwich.
If you look on Sainsburys website (not sure what it was before the vacuum pack) but it’s now a blend of fresh and frozen mince.
>”Feels very medical – like I’ve just bought someone’s kidney to cook at home,” he added.
Some of these people feel icky about eating someone’s kidneys but not about eating their mashed up muscles? Ok…
It doesn’t really surprise me that someone buying minced beef isn’t willing to accept reduced plastic use. Beef is terrible for the environment as it is plastic or no.
It’s disgusting. Will not buy until changed back. The quality is no longer there.
It’s sainsbury trying to greenwash. It’s cheaper for them that’s the bottom line.
I’m all for them doing though but they clearly need to do it better so mince is still mince. Not some giant blob.
There seem to be loads of comments on here defending this change or at least commenting that the vac-packed meat is fine and people are just resistant to change. I have to imagine that there have been multiple batches and those people posting have just been lucky enough to get “the good stuff”.
I’ve bought a few of these vac-packed minces from Sainos down south (Winchester) over the last few weeks now and in every case I completely agree with the complaint – it is absolute dogshit. The mince isn’t mince any more, it’s just turned into a solid lump of meat paste. You *can* break it down, but it takes a lot mroe work and will only break down really fine, which is ok (though still not ideal) for a meat sauce like a bolognaise, but for anything where you really need a coarse grind because the texture of the meat matters – like making a burger for example – it is fucking awful.
I also don’t believe for a second that this is about reducing plastic waste. This will be a decision made to cut costs.
They should just sell it by the handful and customers can take in home in whatever they want. I generally only need a pocketful for my tea as I live alone.
the true crime here is using 5% fat mince, do you hate flavour that much?
They have had to make the mince the consistency of raw dog food to pump it in. You have to cook it for ages on a low heat or it lumps together. It’s not good.
Tbf I think people just need to get used to it. A lot of meat will come like this, perhaps it’s just new and poeple don’t like the initial look and feel of it.