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Sainsbury’s is to start selling ‘touch-free’ packaging - to cater for millennials who are ‘scared of handling raw meat’

The supermarket chain is introducing plastic pouches, which enable people worried about contamination to pop the meat straight into the pan.

Store bosses hope the plastic bags will encourage the so-called snowflake generation - born after 1980 - to cook more at home.

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The move comes after reports that younger people were nervous about cooking and worried about food poisoning.

According to a report in The Sunday Times, one shopper admitted she sprayed chicken with disinfectant before cooking it.

Katherine Hall, product development manager for meat, fish and poultry at Sainsbury's, told The Sun: "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."

She told the newspaper that much of the anxiety about raw chicken comes from a lack of education.

She said: "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.'"

But there was also an "increasing awareness" of bacteria that can cause potentially fatal food poisoning.

The plastic pouches, known as 'doypacks' in the packaging industry, go on sale from May 3 in Sainsbury's.

A recent study found a third of millenials surveyed would prefer not to touch raw meat, compared to only a quarter of the wider population.