Consumer NZ exposes what supermarket food packaging annoys Kiwis the most

Shrink-wrap plastic, difficult to open or just unnecessary - Consumer NZ has revealed what food packaging annoys Kiwis the most.

The report named the top five worst packaging offenders and taking out the top spot is an unexpected Kiwi favourite.

Watties 3-pack mini cans of baked beans packaging have irritated consumers the most, with some claiming to boycott the brand.

Photo credit: New World

Despite it being better value than buying three single cans, customers have been left wondering why they are paying less for a bit of plastic.

"You pay less to get them shrink-wrapped, but you pay more to buy them individually," Consumer NZ head of content Caitlin Cherry told the AM show. "People are like can't a just buy three for the same price - no you can't."

The cans are covered in shrink-wrap, which is soft plastic and harder to recycle.

The next most complained about item was individually wrapped electric toothbrush replacement heads. Not only are they hard to get into, but they also have an unnecessary amount of plastic with a double layer of moulded plastic around each item in the box.

Customers were also frustrated with individually wrapped snack items, with Verkerks Salami Protein Snack Pack sitting at third place.

Next on the list was meat trays with some customers are also resorting to buying meat from the butchers just to avoid the dreaded meat trays.

"People have a big problem with the meat trays," Cherry said.

And finally, Pure'n Ezy's vacuum pack corn, which made the list due to its unnecessary plastic wrap making it a lot more expensive than regular corn.

Photo credit: New World

Cherry says she is she did think most people would complain about hard to get into packaging but has found a lot of New Zealanders are more concerned about the environment.

"I think people are changing and starting to go hey why do we need this much packaging?"

Contact Newshub with your story tips:
news@newshub.co.nz