Sainsbury's vacuum packed mince.

God I loathe it. It’s made me so unreasonably angry. I am only slightly exaggerating when I say it was the worst thing that happened to me last year. I really hope they lose market share to Tesco.

Classic example of companies ignoring what their customers want.

Co-op mince is vacuum packed now too.

I buy Quorn now.

sainsburys vacuum packed mince is disgusting its wet and slimy. Couldn’t bare to look at it so threw it away put me off mince for a while till I tried the M&S brand…there was huge comparison was delicious

It’s the only way I can describe the texture, @Marscapn3 - it is as if the meat lost all substance, but was just a mass of soft fibres with no taste. That is how it felt in my mouth, and it is not an experience I am willing to repeat.

As someone who struggles with some day to day activities (thanks, long covid), I am afraid that your question about how people who can’t break up this mince do any cooking at all, did seem pretty sneery - apologies if that is not how you intended it to come across. People may already be using preprepared ingredients like chopped onions and grated cheese, so they can still produce a home cooked meal for their family, because that means they can cope with cooking the mince - until Sainsbury’s change the packaging and ramp up the difficulty for them.

Not sneering asking questions which are perfectly reasonable. How can mince be like cotton wool?😳

Is it ground beef as opposed to minced beef? I’m used to ground beef because we bought our food in US military commissary’s for years.

This is what we use now to break it up.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/GoodCook-Profreshionals-Meat-Chopper/1633079107?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&wl13=3582&gclsrc=aw.ds&adid=222222222771633079107_117755028669_12420145346&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=501107745824&wl4=pla-394283752452&wl5=9029029&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=1633079107&veh=sem_LIA&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADmfBIpySin9TzA8Asm5UdiZ02--t&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoeCohpiLhwMVyw-tBh2VZw1pEAQYBCABEgJdwfD_BwE

I have tried it, @Marscapn3, and it did not taste anything like the same mince in the previous packaging, which we had used happily for years. And the texture was nasty too - like cotton wool. It is a vastly inferior product now.

And I was referring to other posters’ difficulties cooking with this mince - are you going to sneer at their problems too?

I just rammed the gate and let the alarm go off but I Def won't be back

It isn’t going to impact taste. It’s the same mince just in a different packaging. If you can’t break up mince how are you cooking at all? Stirring sauce, lifting pasta saucepans, chopping, grating cheese…

I scrunched up my receipt the other day, chucked it in the bag out of habit, then couldn't find it amongst all the food. Then was trapped like a felon inside the basket checkout area while my DS (4) ducked under the barrier and ran out of the shop.

Thanks Sainsbury's, you dicks!

Well - I suppose it is saving Sainsbury’s plastic as customers who think the mince now tastes vile and like cotton wool, buy elsewhere.

And who cares about people with disabilities who can’t use it, eh?

“Sainsbury's has announced it is swapping traditional, plastic tray packaging for a new vacuum-packed alternative across its beef mince range, saving 450 tonnes of plastic annually. A supermarket-first, the new packaging will result in a minimum 55% reduction in plastic per product.“

It is far better to reduce plastic in the first place then making a big carbon footprint from collecting and recycling plastic.

It's more non-recyclable single use plastic than before.

But it is still in plastic, @Marscapn3 - and it doesn't look like a lot less plastic either. And it ruins the texture of the meat, which is also wasteful of the planet's resources, if people can't eat it.

Also people with hand and wrist issues and other disabilities that make using this mince harder do exist and it is a bit ableist to dismiss their struggles so glibly.

But it much harder to break up for people with hand/wrist issues, it doesn't break down into the same texture either

The pack of mince I buy once or twice a month is a drop in the ocean - I would take my own container but there's no local butcher now and even if there was it is more expensive

It just feels a bit like they've said "this reduces plastic, you've no choice, it's better for the environment" while everyone is still off flying without a care..

Grim. I've stopped buying it.

Not noticed an issue at all and even if there was one- less plastic to help a burning planet V breaking up mince with a spoon. I despair!

It's gross

I've found it the same... except for the most recent pack! My ragu sauce for my lasagne wasn't what it should have been. Bits of it did lump together.

Lidl have started doing this too, and I hate it. I only tend to buy mince to make a chilli con with, and the texture is just wrong now.

I buy the Taste the Difference mince which is vacuum packed, I cut open the packaging round 3 sides and it comes out easily, then fry it off at high heat as usual while separating the bits till brown with a wooden spatula as I would with any other mince, it's perfectly fine, I don't know what people are fussing about.

I actually prefer it. Takes more elbow grease but I've found it makes a much smoother bolognese. Can't stand the tough little strands of mince.

Yes to it not being recyclable near me either. It's actually caused more waste in our house which is why I've gone back to the butcher.

Our butchers are decently priced and do deliver but they're also closer to my house than the supermarkets are so I'm lucky there. We also find their meat is more filling so I can either make a meal with less meat and make it go further or we have something with plenty of leftovers which is handy for DH for work. It doesn't shrink anywhere near the same way as supermarket meat does.

The last time I was in I spent £33 and got 1lb of steak mince, 1lb of steak sausages, 4 steak burgers (DH would normally have 2 supermarket ones easily but only just managed 1.5 of these), 6 rashers of really nice thick bacon, 4 massive chicken breasts that weren't full of water, 1lb of marinated chicken for stir fry, and a steak round which I served for 3 of us but would probably have been better for 4 as there was a lot of meat in it. It's honestly not much pricier than I would be for the same in the supermarket and I would have to pay for a taxi home from there compared to the butcher.

Awful stuff. I'm not convinced it's any better for the environment either since the soft plastic will end up in the bin most of the time. I get mince from Morrisons these days, they've stuck with the old style packaging for now, as have Tesco.

Its compressed too much and i find i have to work hard to break up the lumps.

I mainly use it for bolognese which i cook for ages so that does get it where it needs to be. But it feels stupid to replace largely recyclable packing with non recyclable film and reduce the quality of the product. They should go back to having a meat counter where people could take their own tubs etc