Free plastic bag for meat and fish

paul2louise

I work in a supermarket that doesn't have the small plastic bags for fruit and veg. Most people just pack their veg with other packaged goods. I had a customer yesterday insist I gave him a free compostable 10p bag for his meat. I asked a manager and they said just let him have it. I just wondered legally do we HAVE to provide a bag of customers ask.

la531983

Food and plants

You’re not required to charge for plastic bags that are solely used for:

• uncooked fish and fish products
• uncooked meat, poultry and their products

Carrier bag charges: retailers' responsibilities - GOV.UK

paul2louise

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81926626#Comment_81926626

So they can have it for free as long as they don't put anything else in the bag

la531983

That would be extremely hard to police.

Exodi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81926688#Comment_81926688

I was going to say this, there's a difference between the technical position and the practical reality.

The manager likely approved giving them a free bag, not because they are up-to-date with Defra's updated guidelines on retailer carrier bag charging requirements, but because it immediately diffuses a difficult customer for the sake of <10p.

Unfortunately it's the way of the world, oftentimes if someone screams loud enough and causes enough of an uproar, it's easier to just let them have their way - especially where they're arguing about something of negligible value.

In the same vein, my sister who works as a supervisor in one of the major supermarkets confessed to me that oftentimes she refunds customers out of her own pocket where the disputed amount is negligible - simply because she'd rather give someone the 5p they're quibbling over, than argue the toss and waste the time it takes to formally process the difference.

flaneurs_lobster

I just steal the little veg bags from Waitrose.

BikingBud

Primary or secondary packaging?

Separation of ready to eat foods from sources of contamination should eg raw meat, be assured by isolating the products.

fatbelly

Morrisons have quite nice free bags available for fresh bread.

itsthelittlethings

Was his meat already wrapped in plastic ie shrink wrapped or sausages in plastic or whatever?

I think your manager probably couldn’t be bothered, the plastic bags you don’t have to charge for are the white bags they put raw meat in at the butchers.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6660099/free-plastic-bag-for-meat-and-fish

No you dont, the law only deals with what bags you have to charge for. You are free to give any other bags away or choose to charge for all bags. Similarly the law sets the minimum price but you are free to charge more if you want.

paul2louise

Our main manager wasn't on duty it was just a shift manager. She said just let him have it. We have a lot of people pinch bags and I have quite a few times people in self service not scan the bag on purpose and claim they didn't know. We are supposed to keep an eye on this as much as we can. I think because he was so aggressive to start with it got my back up. The meat was in vac sealed packaging. If we suspect for any moment the packaging is not intact the food removed and wasted. I suspect he tries to prove his point. If he shopped in other supermarkets that have the free veg bags he probably wouldn't have made this big of a deal.