Another meaty issue

As you’ve probably gathered, we’re all for students cooking for themselves as much as they can so we were interested to see the media fallout at the news that Sainsbury’s is set to launch touch-free packaging for some of its raw chicken range. Following research revealing that many people under the age of 35 fear that they may suffer from food poisoning as a result of touching raw meat, these “rip and tip” meat pouches were developed by the supermarket. So is it just exacerbating the problem for today’s meat-shy millennials?

Personally, we don’t have a problem touching meat and encourage our students in our workshops to get stuck in (obviously not the vegetarians) but we know it’s not everyone’s bag. To be honest, handling meat first up in the morning doesn’t always appeal and the sight of a prostrate, splayed chicken waiting for its lemon herb rub is somewhat un-nerving. But I’d rather cajole someone into handling meat by showing them there is nothing to be afraid of and underlining the need to wash hands before and after handling it and to use a meat-only chopping board to avoid cross-contamination.

So, yes, these new packs are taking away some of the everyday process of cooking but if it’s a choice of cooking from scratch or eating a ready meal we don’t see a problem. If these packs are more expensive for the convenience – that’s a separate issue.