Big Sister Foods Plum Pudding or any of it’s other Brand names Noble Cakes, Molly O’Rourke, George Simpson and Fowlers. Molly O’Rourke Plum Pudding and Christmas cake used Irish Whiskey in the mix and two of the best…Tinned or not. In 2014 it perished as a business. At one stage they made the Lions’ Christmas Cakes, then went to Sara Lee and not sure who now makes them (may still be Sara Lee).
Corned Beef etc still can be found in tins with the key, in a movie “Riddick” picks up one of the keys and threatens to use it to kill a Guard…lol still used in a Dystopian movie Universe as a weapon. But my pet hate of them was not so much the unwinding of the strip but getting a tin without the key to open it…now that was a pain in the keester as many had the key soldered to the top or the base and often enough some rough stacking was enough to lose a few keys off tins.
A sad commentary is that there are accessibility guidelines for packaging published by a number of organisations, but as this topic reveals not every manufacturer has a copy, and some who do have a copy keep it in a safe free from prying eyes.
Government stops at safety in almost each occasion, and if something is safely tucked in an impervious package it cannot be eaten or used, thus must be safe, right?
The one litre plastic bottle of juice. It has a screw top and then a foil lift off seal with a little tab. If you manage to lift the tab you can’t get enough grip or purchase to peel back the seal. I end up with a broken nail and using a knife to stab the seal and lever it off!
Thanks Phil, I didn’t know there were accessibility guidelines for packaging. Unfortunately it seems that guidelines or voluntary standards don’t seem to result in changed practices, as has been highlighted by Choice all too often!
I agree with finlayso. Having opened literally dozens of ring-pull cans, I have to say that I’ve never had a ring detach from its lid. Yes, it can be a bit difficult getting a finger into the ring, and I don’t always feel comfortable about being close to the sharp edges, but if you lift the ring until the lid seal cracks, the rest is reasonably easy. So I would suggest that if you are having difficulty, check your method to ensure that you are doing it the best way, in accordance with the design.
I think phb has provided a good “how to” description.
Not sure of what your basis is for “Why is it so any people have problems?”. Is there a groundswell of complaint about this issue?
If it is a big problem for you, there is the alternative of using your mechanical can opener. The lid should come off in the same way as a standard can.
Upthread there are several people who report they do not have a problem and several who do.
It may be that technique makes the difference. It may be that we are generalising and there is a subset of products where the ring is well attached, another where it is not and your experience depends on which you buy.
Perhaps a survey is in order? It would be hard to get right as I am pretty sure few accurately recall which tins with ring pulls they have bought and which give trouble. Keeping a log in the kitchen and reliably remembering to use it to record which give trouble and do not … nah not happening.
Of course should Choice ever do a survey of tinned fruit or vegetables such a study could be grafted on to it.
Flat film-covered packs of cold meats/cheese with one corner different from the other three which LOOKS as though you should be able to lift it and peel it back, but which in fact is as firmly sealed down as the rest.
For added irritation, these are often labeled with some sort of optimistic slogan or branding such as EZY-Open.
I presume you mean the security seals, that sometimes are plastic wraps on the outside, and other times foil or plastic seals under the cap.
My brand of liquid stock started having the extra plastic film seal under the plastic screw cap. But it’s rare now that the seal is actually intact. A defect in the sealing process, no doubt, but it’s adding to the packaging cost without adding any extra safety or security.
Being one who has issues a little clarification might assist: If it’s Mr Heinz his beans packaging has proven 100% reliable. Lift/tilt the ring pull until vertical, lid seal broken, lift using digit in ring hole, (the ring hole seems to be getting smaller), lid commences tearing around perimeter, the lid encourages a natural rolling action. Mission accomplished. The ring pulls on certain brands of sardines have not even survived the first step of bending up before popping of the still in tact lid. Of all products I do not wish to stuff around with using a can opener or improvised end of a screw driver etc is a can of oily sardines!
Another reasonable suspicion is the lower cost products may stretch the pennies with the tooling that creates the lid tear line. As the tool wears there are two choices. One is to replace with new or refurbished tooling. The other to pop out a few more thousand lids with worn tooling resulting in a more resistant tear line.
The tips on how to respond when it doesn’t work are all useful. All thanks to the community member who asked the question in the first place.
The worst I can recall was the hard plastic packaging containing the recent Coles promotion Masterchef knives inside their cardboard boxes.
They almost required an angle grinder with a cutting blade to open them.
They may have been designed to stop terrorists in Coles stores from attacking anyone but some things are completely over the top.
Another one re-emerged this afternoon when I was trying to open a small wheel of Tasmanian Heritage Brie Cheese, which like other cheeses, had a large round sticker holding down all the folds of the wrapping.
The stickers will almost never easily peel off, let alone lend themselves to being used to re-wrap the cheese.
If it is designed to help prevent opening in the store, then how hard would it be to use an easy to remove and re-apply sticker and then to simply shrink wrap the cheese which would be even more secure?
I vote for this x 1000. Whoever designed that closure should be forced to drink nothing but milk in that carton type for the term of their natural life. Nothing worse than having to butcher one of those cartons with a knife/chopstick/skewer before I have had my coffee.
The trick to pouring is to hold the carton the counter-intuitive “wrong way” up - pour with the opening uppermost (furthest from the cup/bowl/jug) as it allows air to get into that carton as the milk comes out. You can find evidence of the effectiveness of this technique on YouTube.
That is sage advice for any ‘jugged’ product from milk to cooking oil to name it, and not limited to food/beverage products. The spout or pouring hole should always be ‘up top’ to allow air to get in and avoid the ‘glug glug’ splashes.
edit: as @fred123 added below, unless the container has a breather hole
Except for the fantastic 3 litre cans of Australian Cobram and Red Island olive oil as these companies are smart enough to provide a pop up breather hole at the opposite end on the top of the can to the pourer.
Supermarket roast chicken in plastic packets: there are four small air holes just under the seal which leak if packet not upright and make it impossible to drain off liquid without spills.
