The plastic/foil protective covering on containers

glassyo

I don't think we've had a poll in a while.

You know how containers of cottage cheese/yogurt/protein powder/etc have that really stuck on protective covering under the lid?

What do you do with it once you open the container and put the leftovers back in the fridge/freezer?

mtaratoot

Remove carefully so it ALL comes off so I can reuse the container and still make a good seal with the lid. I figure a partially-removed plastic tamper seal interferes with a good seal from the replaceable lid.

It's mostly for tamper evidence, but does keep a better seal during transport to the store. I was glad my cottage cheese had one today when I got home from the grocery. It decided it didn't want to go into the cold, dark refrigerator and tried to fly off. Of course it already had its wings clipped, so it crashed to the ground. The plastic seal broke just a bit from the force of the impact, but it just oozed a tiny bit and didn't require Clean Up on Aisle 54.

On an only semi-related note, I remove the cotton ball from the bottle of vitamins. It no longer needs protection from shock (unless it tries to fly away like my cottage cheese), and I figure it can absorb water and decrease the freshness of the vitamins. Or aspirin as the case may be.

BarbaraHelen2013

Rip that puppy off. The protective covering over the protective covering is enough.

If the container has a lid I remove the inner sealed film completely. I agree that, once peeled away from the edges it interferes with the seal of the outer lid.

Which is all well and good, but here in the U.K. the move is being made to save plastic waste and many, many of these containers no longer have the outer lid at all. Meaning all you have is a peelable film, which, once opened provides no seal whatsoever! 🙄

Amazon does sell silicone lids for the more standard size pots but sizing from different manufacturers is far from standard!

glassyo

Yeeeeeah, we obviously have the only one layer of covering on our individual sizes but I could have sworn I saw it on a bigger size of something or another too. Annoying

This is what prompted the question. I was NOT having a good peeling week!

ehju0901

Rip that puppy off. The protective covering over the protective covering is enough.

glassyo wrote: »

Yeeeeeah, we obviously have the only one layer of covering on our individual sizes but I could have sworn I saw it on a bigger size of something or another too. Annoying

This is what prompted the question. I was NOT having a good peeling week!

I buy that same yogurt and I always have issues ripping the seal off!

ehju0901

Rip that puppy off. The protective covering over the protective covering is enough.

I rip the seal off and try to get as much of the remnants peeled off as well. Afterwards, I run the containers through the dishwasher and re-use them in the spring as seed starter containers.

paints5555

I rip it off as completely as I can as it gets messy if it remains. However, some lids are fitted so that they are snug when the film is on but then are loose when the film is removed and it's hard to know which ones are like that until it's too late. It is also REALLY annoying when a film has a pull tab but then the film is welded onto the container and requires a knife to remove.

yirara

Keep it on even if it's ripped all wierdly.

There's no protective covering underneath the protective covering here. It's either a lid, or a plastic film. Or metal in some single-service cases. If the plastic is ripped I might put a lid I still have on it, or leave it as it. If it doesn't close properly then that's fine as well. I mean, if I have to keep a pack of skyr or whatever open for 5 days it won't go off in the meantime. Most multi-use containers here are of very thin plastic with paper around that you can pull off and then recycle both in their respective bins. The plastic itself is too thin for pretty much everything without the paper.

glassyo

ehju0901 wrote: »

glassyo wrote: »

Yeeeeeah, we obviously have the only one layer of covering on our individual sizes but I could have sworn I saw it on a bigger size of something or another too. Annoying

This is what prompted the question. I was NOT having a good peeling week!

I buy that same yogurt and I always have issues ripping the seal off!

And when you lay it back when trying to spoon the yogurt out of the container, it quickly flips back over, leaving remnants of yogurt on your knuckles. That you lick off because it's just you and why waste good yogurt?

paints5555 wrote: »

I rip it off as completely as I can as it gets messy if it remains. However, some lids are fitted so that they are snug when the film is on but then are loose when the film is removed and it's hard to know which ones are like that until it's too late. It is also REALLY annoying when a film has a pull tab but then the film is welded onto the container and requires a knife to remove.

See????

yirara wrote: »

There's no protective covering underneath the protective covering here. It's either a lid, or a plastic film. Or metal in some single-service cases. If the plastic is ripped I might put a lid I still have on it, or leave it as it. If it doesn't close properly then that's fine as well. I mean, if I have to keep a pack of skyr or whatever open for 5 days it won't go off in the meantime. Most multi-use containers here are of very thin plastic with paper around that you can pull off and then recycle both in their respective bins. The plastic itself is too thin for pretty much everything without the paper.

I think I'd worry about keeping something like the yogurt or cottage cheese not covered completely. I've gotten better with expiration dates but that might be too much.

Hiawassee88

Rip that shizz off. It's nasty. It requires touching it in some way, when you try to put it back on. Bacteria blowback.

cwolfman13

Except for single serve items, it's just a tamper seal. Everything I've ever seen that is more than one serving has a lid of some kind.

mtaratoot

Hiawassee88 wrote: »

Rip that shizz off. It's nasty. It requires touching it in some way, when you try to put it back on. Bacteria blowback.

Rip it off for sure; however....

Wash your hands before cooking. That should limit transferring bacteria from your hands to the bulk of your food. As for yogurt, mine already has lots of bacteria in it; that's how it's yogurt!

AnnPT77

Other

I usually leave it on (more laziness than anything else) unless it's soooo ripped up that it falls into the container.

Post-consumption, I recycle the all-foil ones and the all-plastic-film ones as well as the tub (if eligible), but curse the sealed-together foil+plastic ones as I throw them in the trash. Sometimes I have to scrape foil off the tub-edges before recycling the tub. I wish they were all clean-peel. I do keep a few of certain tubs or plastic ids for various household uses. (Tubs is obvious. I use plastic yogurt lids as an easy-rinse surface for weighing messy stuff on my food scale, and some screw-on plastic lids as plant saucers. There are a lot of plants here, and new baby ones frequently.)

If the seal gets in the way while serving, I usually crease it backwards, and the weight of it keeps it there until I flip it back before putting the lid back on.

I don't worry about contaminating the food with my hands. My hands are clean when I cook, and I'm a no-meat household which limits some of the really scary stuff. Beyond that, I figure my immune system needs steady work to keep it happy, because it seems to me there's decent evidence that being toooooo clean/disinfected leads immune systems to get up to mischief in some cases.

If stuff only has film on top (rare here except truly single-serve foods), I'd transfer the leftover to a clean tempered-glass dish with a snap-on plastic lid. I have gazillions of those in 1 and 2 cup sizes and a few larger ones. While these were all mainly acquired for freezing foods in a reusable, heatable non-plastic container, I use them for storing lots of things in the fridge rather than using plastic wrap, foil, or other mostly-single-use stuff.

glassyo

Ok, I am SO ripping all three off when I get home tonight!

kshama2001

Keep it on even if it's ripped all wierdly.

I leave it on. When I freeze leftovers in 1 or 2 cup containers, I wash one and put it on top of the food, which cuts down on freezer burn. By not throwing them out right away, I always have some on hand.

I love these silicone tops, which may not be wide enough for everyone's needs, but do work for 1 # cans on down.

Food Huggers 5pc Reusable Silicone Food Savers | BPA Free & Dishwasher Safe | Fruit & Vegetable Produce Storage for Onion, Tomato, Lemon, Banana, Cans & More

kshama2001

Keep it on even if it's ripped all wierdly.

I curse the film on 4 oz fruit cups, which never come off without a fight, and generally spill juice on the counter. I've learned to open them next to the sink.

PAPYRUS3

Hate the flimsy ones...ends up a shredded mess most of the time...

I love when a brand (the brand of cottage cheese I purchase) has an 'outside' plastic seal around the lid/container so that you know it has not been opened. They don't include the annoying film.

I like the foiled ones - I reuse it as a perfect little heat preserver on my cup of coffee and have used it on a small amount of left overs.

springlering62

Rip that puppy off. The protective covering over the protective covering is enough.

Ask me about peeling the protective cover off my purple hair dye yesterday. That made a mess.


I wish it was possible to buy yogurt and especially cottage cheese in larger sizes. Between the dog and I, we go through four containers of cottage cheese a week.

I try my best to save and reuse (handy for packing the homemade skyr in ice cream making portions) , but you can only save so many of them.

We fill a couple trash bags a week with them and those overly fancy tubs some deli meats come in. Who decided those were a great idea?!

I know Costco and the like have large containers but only full fat. I only use fat free. 🤷🏻‍♀️

mtaratoot

springlering62 wrote: »

Ask me about peeling the protective cover off my purple hair dye yesterday. That made a mess.


I wish it was possible to buy yogurt and especially cottage cheese in larger sizes. Between the dog and I, we go through four containers of cottage cheese a week.

I try my best to save and reuse (handy for packing the homemade skyr in ice cream making portions) , but you can only save so many of them.

We fill a couple trash bags a week with them and those overly fancy tubs some deli meats come in. Who decided those were a great idea?!

I know Costco and the like have large containers but only full fat. I only use fat free. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was using full fat cottage cheese for a while, but now compromise with low-fat. I don't bother with the non-fat stuff. Have you tried a restaurant supply store?

Here's a better idea if you really use lots: make your own! It's not hard, and you might end up with a higher quality product and no small containers and unless you have the machine to apply the seals... no seals to deal with.

paperpudding

Rip that puppy off. The protective covering over the protective covering is enough.

tear it right off.

not because of blow back bacteria (that never occurred to me, really) but just habit and looks neater and doesnt get in the way then and mostly habit.

and after that just use the lid that comes with it for the rest of the product.

this comes under the column of 'things I do without thinking about it'

penguinmama87

paints5555 wrote: »

I rip it off as completely as I can as it gets messy if it remains. However, some lids are fitted so that they are snug when the film is on but then are loose when the film is removed and it's hard to know which ones are like that until it's too late. It is also REALLY annoying when a film has a pull tab but then the film is welded onto the container and requires a knife to remove.

YES.

I have noticed a couple products have gone to "no lids at all except the film covering" and sure, it might save some material, but it's never going to seal back as well even if they say it will. With kids who are prone to stacking things in the fridge without regard to load bearing capacity we've had some gross spills, too when the cover is flimsy.

I *usually* take the thing off. I do like when the container has a clear lid and then I can easily see how much is left, or prepare myself for the smell of the thing that was forgotten at the back for....too long.