70% less plastic in the packaging of SPAR’s popular S-BUDGET pork mince

70% less plastic than before is used in the new innovative vacuum-formed film packaging of SPAR’s popular S-BUDGET pork mince. The saving on packaging also enables the Hungarian retail chain to reduce the consumer price of the product.

“It is a primary objective of our company to use less plastic in the packaging of our goods, while also complying with the strictest food safety and storage standards. With our environmental measures taken, we saved more than 550 tonnes of plastic packaging in 2022. This figure could now increase further as one of our most popular meat products, the 500g SPAR S-BUDGET pork mince is now available in INTERSPAR stores in film packaging with protective gas instead of the previously used plastic tray. Following the trial period until next February, we aim to switch to flow pack packaging for this product in all our stores, provided that customer feedback is positive,” explained Márk Maczelka, head of communications at SPAR Hungary.

The new flow pack packaging of S-BUDGET pork mince in 500 g packs, produced in the company’s proprietary Regnum meat-processing plant, now uses 70% less plastic and a protective gas film with absorbent paper instead of a tray. The volume of plastic used is less than a third of the previous packaging, only 4.95 grammes. With the new packaging, SPAR is able to sell this mince for 899 HUF instead of the previous price of 1049 HUF, now available in INTERSPAR hypermarkets.

Flow pack technology is safe, preserves the freshness of the meat and uses only packaging material that meets the stringent international quality assurance standards of SPAR. Since the S-BUDGET pork mince is one of the most popular products of the retail chain (with nearly 40 000 packages transported from the meat-processing plant and reaching store shelves every month), this innovative packaging allows SPAR to significantly reduce its environmental impact.