Is it me, or has there been a decline in the quality of food packaging over the last 3 months or so (from a fairly standard, since the pandemic began, I should add).
It seems regardless of where we shop – deliveries from Ocado or Waitrose, or in person at Sainsbury’s or Aldi – we’re finding lots of improperly sealed fresh chilled food. Whether “slow cooked” sous vide meals in boxed plastic bags, or poultry in bags, or film-covered foil or plastic dishes, or film-and-tray packages.
Is it understaffing, technical issues (e.g. servicing of packaging machinery, or running it out of specification to save energy, or new packaging formats), or other factors? I know some packaging of fresh chilled food makes use of inert gases supposedly sealed in the packaging to prevent spoilage, but how prevalent are such techniques? Should we reject any fresh chilled food with packaging that isn’t properly sealed, or is it no big deal?
I’d particularly welcome responses from food manufacturing and supermarket insiders, but responses from other customers are welcome, too.