Sainsbury’s defends efforts to cut plastic as shoppers call mince vac-packs ‘vile’

Sainsbury’s mince before and after. The retailer said the new packaging would save 450 tonnes of plastic a year. Photograph: Sainsbury's

Sainsbury’s has said it is determined to make more “bold moves” to cut plastic and defended its new packaging for mince that shoppers have criticised as “very medical”, “too compressed” and “vile”.

The supermarket said last month it was the first UK retailer to vacuum pack all its beef mince, part of the retailer’s efforts to halve its use of plastic packaging on its own-label products by 2025.