"When I tried frying it, it was just a big slab of mush, took forever to break it down in the frying pan," said one reviewer, comparing it to dog meat. "The texture now has the appeal of an exhumed corpse," said another.

Greener packaging is something that governments are trying to promote and consumers generally claim to support. A 2020 McKinsey US consumer sentiment survey found that more than 60% of people said they would pay more for sustainable packaging. Yet in practice, customers are resistant to change, especially if it deteriorates quality.

"Consumers do not always understand what is 'sustainable' and need to be educated in terms of why the packaging has changed, why the new packaging is better for the environment," says Siobhan Gehin, partner at Roland Berger.

There's a financial dimension to the supermarket trying to reduce its environmental impact. Under new laws in the UK, companies will have to help pay the costs of dealing with packaging rubbish they create from next year.

Different Instructions

Sainsbury said its mince product contains exactly the same ingredients as before, it's just that the vacuum-packing changes its consistency. The retailer said sales haven't suffered despite the negative reviews. The meat needs about an extra minute or so of "agitation" in a frying pan, and the supermarket is updating cooking instructions on the packs to explain this, said Richard Crampton, head of fresh food at Sainsbury.

"We can do more communication on how you cook it, and we will absolutely do that," he said. "But we do need to make some of these bold changes and there will be more to come on different products."

Sainsbury committed to halving its own-brand plastic packaging by 2025. With a less than 20% reduction in three years from the 2018 benchmark, Britain's second biggest supermarket is turning to more drastic options. It recently removed the trays under whole chickens, removing 140 metric tons of plastic a year.

"We're not trying to do this for commercial benefit," said Crampton. "This is simply because it is the right thing to do."

Food poses a particular challenge for producers looking to reduce their environmental impact because food-grade recycled plastic is harder to make. Branded consumer-goods companies appear more attuned to the challenge.

Nestle SA says it's on track to reduce its use of virgin plastics in packaging by a third by 2025. Plastic-free packaging faces extensive testing to make sure it keeps food safe and stable. Nestle has developed paper KitKat wrappers, which it uses in a small proportion of its markets, including Japan. Smarties, where the chocolate is protected by a sugary casing, have been sold in paper tubes since 2021. In Britain, waxed paper Quality Street wrappers got a frosty reception in the tabloid press, but the company insists the change was "well-received" while declining to comment on sales.

Grant McKenzie, chief marketing officer at brewer Asahi's European and international business, says consumers need to be educated about why packaging is changing. If they aren't, they will assume that it's to cut costs.

When the company wanted to remove the foil from its premium Pilsner Urquell beer, customers were skeptical. The company relied on marketing to convince them. It said that that Pilsner is 180 years old and for it to exist 180 years from now, it needs to behave in a sustainable way in society. "We turned it into real language," McKenzie said. In advertising campaigns, the company told consumers that by removing the small piece of foil, the metal savings reached the equivalent of the weight of nine elephants per year. "It all adds up."

The company didn't show Bloomberg the calculations.

First Mover

Changing regulations can also sometimes offer opportunity. For example, France is considering a proposal to require that supermarkets larger than 400 square meters (4,300 square feet) dedicate a fifth of their floor space to food refill stations by 2030, like those being tested by Nestle. The Swiss company is planning to allow consumers to fill up their own containers with pet food and coffee in some markets. There are challenges, however — unsealed containers shorten the life span of the product and consumers can make more mess.

But there's a first-mover advantage, which Nestle is aiming to exploit. Getting it right — and early — would give Nestle easier access to more floor space because it will have beat the competition. Across the European Union, policies on refillable containers are being considered.

Redesigning packaging is costly for multinationals because what's recyclable varies across different countries. There's a push to standardize approaches through a global UN treaty on plastics pollution, but any real uniformity across markets is a long way off.

"It's a complicated problem," said Shalini Unnikrishnan, partner at consultancy BCG. "It's not easy to understand what's actually worse or what's better. We need to create regulations that make it really simple."

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.