The supermarket said it was introducing the straight-to-pan plastic doypacks after a survey revealed high anxiety levels of shoppers under the age of 35 when they anticipate having to handle uncooked meat.

Fear of contamination by bacteria such as campylobacter is one of the reasons ‘Generation Y’ is said to be so fearful of touching raw meat.

Campylobacter was a big food scare a few years ago. Since then the likes of Parkside and Skymark among others have developed packaging to help combat bacteria. This solution, however, takes consumer/ raw meat distance further.

Katherine Hall, product development manager for meat, fish and poultry, Sainsbury’s, told the Sunday Times: “Customers, particularly younger ones, are quite scared of touching raw meat. These bags allow people, especially those who are time-poor, to just ‘rip and tip’ the meat straight into the frying pan without touching it.”

In a focus group one woman reportedly said she coated her chicken with antibacterial spray before cooking it.

“A lot of younger people are eating out in restaurants but they are not preparing as much food in their home. If they are not used to it, they may think, ‘Ugh! I’d prefer someone else to do it for me.’”