Warning to shoppers buying hummus at Tesco or Sainsbury's
Sainsbury's and Tesco have dropped plastic lids from their hummus pots. Sainsbury’s and Tesco have ditched single-use plastic lids on their own-brand hummus pots as part of efforts to reduce waste, the retailers have confirmed.
But a shopper took to X, formerly Twitter, to rage: “I’m so baffled about Tesco removing the plastic lid from hummus and replacing it with a flimsy plastic cover which requires me to now cover it with clingfilm or similar. How is that helping anyone?”
Another said: “In my house, we decant the uneaten hummus into a clean Gü ramekin, then cover it using a recycled lid from a tub of Bisto gravy granules.” Helen Bird, the head of material systems transformation for the sustainability charity Wrap, said: “The biggest supermarkets are all working to remove problematic and unnecessary plastic packaging.
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“There are many examples of this removal, including lids from dairy products and dips. This is not always as convenient for people as single-use plastic, but there are other solutions, like covering with a small plate. There is much more to be done to remove unnecessary packaging, which provide wider benefits to shoppers.”
A spokesperson for Tesco said: “We have recently removed the lids on our hummus pots as part of our ongoing efforts to tackle plastic waste. This latest change will remove more than 31m pieces of plastic – equivalent to 157 tonnes of plastic a year.”
Another person said: "The removal of the plastic lid means a) I have to put secondary cling film on b) the food slops around and is wasted c) the food goes off faster and is wasted… whoever thought this was good for the environment was entirely wrong."
And another added: "Tesco replacing the plastic lids on its hummus pots with a film lid is up there with being one of the worst decisions of all time." The move comes after Sainsbury's became the first supermarket in the UK to stop providing plastic bags for fruit and veg back in 2019.