Stoopid Food Packaging

[Mark Harrison]

A UK pet peeve. The way that Tesco (UK's leading supermarket chain) sell "Carr's water biscuits".

Carrs are wrapped in plastic to keep them fresh. No problem with that.

The plastic is then put in a cardboard pack with the product information on it. No problem with that.

This is how they used to be packaged....

In TESCO ONLY The cardboard pack is now packed in a shrink-wrap plastic case! Why? Is one layer of plastic not good enough? Do we feel that double the waste is a good thing? Othe retailers don't require the second plastic layer.

Edited June 1, 2011 by Mark Harrison (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

It's probably something to do with preventing people from tampering with the contents. Down here companies did basically the same thing with paracetamol and some foodstuffs. I'm sure every big company that sells stuff on supermarket shelves has the odd idiot ring up or write in saying, Hey, I've just gone to a supermarket and contaminated some of your product.

[highchef]

I think all packaging should assume the consumer will recycle. That said, WHY don't they put resealable bags in the cereal boxes? I can't recycle glass here, so I buy plastic when I can, and really like it when jars I buy have measuring marks on them...the only ones I've found though were preserves.

[Pierogi]

Today I opened a plastic "dish" type container of edamame/wasabi dip from Fresh & Easy. Yes, I realize that was my first problem. But I had dashed into the store for something else because it was convenient, and this looked interesting, and I had chips so on we went.

It was square container, and had a plastic snap-on lid that had a paper strip over it as the first level of tamper resistance. Then, over the "bowl", and the surface of the quite liquid dip, was a heat-sealed-on-the-edges sheet of plastic film. That could NOT be peeled off in one, or even several, large pieces.

It came off it leeeeeeetle, tiny strips.....each of which flopped down onto the surface of the quite-liquid dip, thus dribbling the quite-liquid dip all over the counter as I attempted to remove the shredded plastic film from the top of the quite-liquid dip.

No. It wasn't that good. Not worth the effort to open it, and the counter top cleaning required after that attempt.

Mental note made and hopefully retained.

[judiu]

Today I opened a plastic "dish" type container of edamame/wasabi dip from Fresh & Easy. Yes, I realize that was my first problem. But I had dashed into the store for something else because it was convenient, and this looked interesting, and I had chips so on we went.

It was square container, and had a plastic snap-on lid that had a paper strip over it as the first level of tamper resistance. Then, over the "bowl", and the surface of the quite liquid dip, was a heat-sealed-on-the-edges sheet of plastic film. That could NOT be peeled off in one, or even several, large pieces.

It came off it leeeeeeetle, tiny strips.....each of which flopped down onto the surface of the quite-liquid dip, thus dribbling the quite-liquid dip all over the counter as I attempted to remove the shredded plastic film from the top of the quite-liquid dip.

No. It wasn't that good. Not worth the effort to open it, and the counter top cleaning required after that attempt.

Mental note made and hopefully retained.

Um, if you run into the same problem again, grab a sharp knife and cut the heat sealed plastic on the diagonal and peel from the cut to each side. You should have no problems. HTH!

[Kouign Aman]

Or grab same sharp knife, run it around inner edge of seal all the way.

[judiu]

DUH! (Slaps self on side of head )

[deepfryerdan]

Pretty much any pack that requires me to pull two pieces of the same plastic apart. For instance, bacon. It comes between two pieces of vacuum sealed plastic sheets. If you happen to grab it when your fingers are even the slightest bit moist there's no chance of pulling the two sheets apart. Horrible. I usually just cut it now.

[Kouign Aman]

"reusable" ziplocks on plastic too thin to support them. The plastic tears from the stress of pulling the zipper.

Staples placed thru the plastic package BELOW the ziplock.

judiu, no no no! Do not hurt self! Diagonal rule works great w bacon, etc.

[DanM]

I bought a frozen broccoli souffle a while back as an emergency dish. The package states only 60 calories per serving! The dish is about the size of a loaf of bread and probably two slices thick... and four servings!

[minas6907]

When I'm being really good, I portion out tablespoon sized dollops of the canned stuff onto a plate lined with plastic wrap, freeze it, then roll the whole thing up and stuff it in a ziploc and keep it in the freezer for individual portions. Do the same thing with Chipotles. The Chipotles are actually really nice that way, you can dice them up while frozen much easier than room temp.

You have to remember to label them, though, because dollops of frozen tomato paste and dollops of frozen chipotles look exactly the same. Granted, you can smell the difference, but sometimes I forget and end up with the wrong one.

Haha, I thought I was clever for thinking of this. I just wrap it into a log in plastic wrap, then freeze. I just cut off pieces as I need them. Thats so funny you say about the chipotles looking just like the tomato paste, one day I was looking for some paste and wondered (of course forgetting that I had peppers in the freezer) why is this tomato paste wrapped in such a large log and such a deep blood red color?

[TomatoMustard]

Breakfast cereal in boxes. A resealable inner bag would be nice.

On the same note: potato chips, why don't they come with a resealable top?

[heidih]

Breakfast cereal in boxes. A resealable inner bag would be nice.

On the same note: potato chips, why don't they come with a resealable top?

Because they want us to eat them all at once, or to let them get stale and have to buy a new bag? Plus the resealable top issue was brought up earlier - so often they are a pain to tear open and do not work effectively to reseal.

[kayb]

I hate a cereal bag, inside the box, that is all but impossible to open without a knife or scissors. I don't eat a lot of dry cereal, and I'm convinced this is why.

[GwennP]

Milk in the plastic bottles with the little handles. There is always a crud/plastic build up around the opening that gets in your coffee/glass if you forget to wipe it each time.

[GwennP]

"Chipotles just sit in the can with a sheet of plastic wrap rubber-banded over the top. They seem to last forever that way in the fridge. For jalapenos, the first batch I bought was in a glass jar. Now I just save the jar and the brine and add to it from cans that I buy."

Edited June 30, 2011 by GwennP (log)

[Catherine Iino]

Cardboard boxes with cellophane windows that you have to remove when you recycle the box. Someone should start a movement.