Tesco Changes Packaging Concepts for Cheese and Chicken

The British retail chain Tesco wants to use a new concept to save 260 tons of plastic per year on packaging for its own label hard cheeses. The packaging of fresh chicken will also be changed.

Cheese in a square shaped packaging: This is part of the classic picture on the shelves in supermarkets in Great Britain. For the sake of sustainability, the Tesco retail chain is now breaking with tradition and has changed the packaging concept for its own label hard cheeses. Around 40 product lines are affected. New 400-gramme pack sizes in an oblong packaging are replacing the previous 460-gramme packs. “This is a revolutionary move for the UK cheese industry because the iconic square shaped cheese packs have been around for decades”, says Peter Wood, purchasing manager for Tesco cheese.

260 tonnes of plastic saved

Both the 400-gramme packs and the 220-gramme packs also have had the re-sealable zip removed. In addition, Tesco is dispensing with the plastic trays in which the cheese was previously delivered. It is now sent in a new, shelf-ready cardboard format. According to Tesco, the measures will result in a total annual saving of around 260 tons of plastic. This is roughly equivalent to the weight of 20 double-decker buses.

New packaging for chicken meat

Tesco also announced that from 2021, it would no longer use plastic trays to pack its own brand fresh whole chickens and would replace them with single bags. Initially, the company plans to do without the tray and film for chickens in medium, large and extra-large formats. The new packaging should not only be more sustainable, but also more hygienic for customers to handle. It makes it easier to put the chicken in a roasting tray without having to touch it.