My biggest issue with Plenny shake is spillage. I’ve wasted a lot of food that way and mess it creates especially in the workspace is terrible. I proposed already to package it in one meal paper bags (for instance 300kcal each) but you were concerned about shelf life. Maybe it would be possible to package the small one-meal bags in big plastic bags?
If you are concerned about the environment remember that me and probably many others will stop using your product and start producing like 20 times more non-recyclable waste. So not a really good strategy.
Currently my subscription is moved by a month and I’m looking for a more convenient alternative.
Hi Michael, I’m sorry to hear that! What seems to be the problem, why are you making such a mess man?!
In any case, the idea is indeed rather environmentally unfriendly. And for people to stop using our product and thus create more waste is not really something you can blame on us. We as a company have a code of ethics and we try to uphold that as good as we can! That’s why, for instance, we don’t like shipping single items out or why we have introduced 2,3 kg bags. We also try to compensate for the strain our type of business puts on the environment by planting trees (like with Black Friday). I’m afraid packaging small bags into bigger bags would not fit in our idea of trying to be as sustainable as possible.
Believe me I try to not. But its hard to not with the current solution.
Yes I did try and the bigger is easier to scoop. Still there always something will foll off the scoop and get wasted. It’s not about blaming it’s about the environment. Some extra small paper bags will not make a huge difference but if people stop using completely your product in favor of regular packed salads, switches and other meals will. I would love to buy 5kg plastic bag of 300kcal paper pouches that I could easily fill my shaker with without scooping, spillage, wastage of food. then 2 x 2.3kg bags to keep one at work and one at home. Plus I could put few of those little pouches to my backpack when I go for a day long hike or just give one to my friend to give it a try and maybe get him convinced to the modern way of eating.
Current solution produces least waste, I agree. But It is so inconvenient and not flexible that will be a deal-breaker for many.
You already sell plenny drink which is much much worse for the environment then the solution i proposed so why not to ask community as you recently did?
@Koningsbruggen
Yeah actually the big bag is better for that bur still a lot of spillage.
Have you tried to level off the scoop before removing it from the packaging?
Like this way: You fill the scoop from inside the bag, then use the inside of the packaging to get the scoop to be leveled before removing it from the packaging and inserting the scoop into the shaker.
I don’t really see how you can spill your food this way? When exactly are you loosing the produce?
Don’t scoop from the bag if you are spilling it. Scoop from another container. All you have to do is dump the bag into the other container first. Problem solved.
Put the scoop into the shaker instead of holding it above the shaker and filipping it up there. If you have the larger shaker and haven’t filled it up more than 400-500ml or so it should be ok. If you do it like that, and level the amount of powder in the scoop before moving it over, you should have minimal to zero spillage.
Also, I think you’d have to spill A LOT for it to be more environmentally friendly to have smaller packaging. It would also become more expensive if it was packaged that way, so I don’t really see why this is a problem for you. There are ways to minimize spillage, and even accounting for unavoidable spillage, why would you eat something else just because you spill some powder when eating JJ?
Like DannyL I don’t scoop from the bag. I always store powder from opened bags in a different container that’s easier to scoop from. I still get some spillage sometimes, but it’s not much.
Thank You for the effort in advising me all of this stuff, I might be clumsy but I am not an idiot and I have already tried everything you advise here and more. So please stop providing me with further advise as I started this topic to discuss the the option I advised, not getting lectured.
A few extra paper bags inside of one big plastic bag would not make any difference for the environment so don’t hide yourself behind this reasoning. It just sounds silly when JJ make a big fuss about that in the same time selling penny drink in single and hard to recycle cardbord+aluminium+plastic bottles. So if it’s possible to sell bars and drinks in single packaging shipping to people water by the way I have no idea why it’s a deal breaker when it comes to the shake.
Clearly the reason is somewhere else and it’s not taking care of the planet.
Spillage of what? The powder not making the vessel? The individual packaging costs would be very high.
If you’re concerned the scoop isn’t accurate, weigh each meal on kitchen scales.
I reply because the mess sound familiar ^^
The first week I started using this, I had to clean an entire kitchen because I managed to shake without the lid being properly attached.
I still sometimes manage to nasty stains on my clothes when the first drip appears from nowhere right after shaking. ([edit] wow, that sounds like a euphemism, yuck ^^ )
And I noticed the scoop tends to get magnetically charged, so if you look at the powder you’ll see pieces jumping off of it without any further provocation.
All this caused me to develop a very particular set of rituals to adding the powder, shaking and the first sip (you should see the way I shield myself from that first drop, it looks ridiculous). It mostly works, and for me it’s definitely weighs up to the downsides of this project, with the right approach and a bit of luck I can contain all the mess.
I say a bit of luck, because both the magnetic powder and that first drip are very unpredictable. Depending on the weather and other conditions my clothes sometimes hold a different charge from the powder, causing a rain of tiny dust missiles to seek my clothes, occasionally actively flying upwards. I’m wondering whether there’s a way to ground the powder in some way to avoid this. I haven’t tried it with a metal scoop.
I think it might be possible to avoid the shaker drip, though I don’t expect that to be easy. The very features that make it watertight during shaking cause a lot of the drips through a combination of surface tension and capillary action.
Smaller bags definitely wouldn’t help me. Getting the last bit out of a bag is always the most problematic part for me, where it tends to fly or stick exactly when I want the opposite. I think making the powder fall past the plastic might actually be charging it more, causing more of those magnetic issues.
The increases in bag size in the past have definitely helped me reduce the amount of powder I have to clean up from my kitchen sink.
Yeah the electromagnetic charge thing is another one. I just did not mention it as I have already gave enough arguments.
What if the 100g - 200g sachet would be narrow so you can put it into shaker and made of paper so you could easily tear top off? It would not stick to the paper as it does to plastic.
They make some whey protein shakes like that already.
Think how flexible that solution is. You can take with you as may serving you want. Give one to your sceptic friend. no scooping, no weighting just joy.
Currently Im testing Queal. The bag seal is different and its allows me to open it partly so I can put in directly from the bag to the shaker with no spillage, also it does not getting electromagnetically charged and flavours are more vivd. On the cons side it gives me diarrea (same as JJ did in the past) and it’d not as filling. We will see…
I think extra bags would be much more work, meaning more costs plus added packaging material. For every bag we produce. We produce thousands of bags per day so the impact would be rather significant
Also, our Plenny Drink Tetra drinking containers are 100% recyclable.
I use to split up the bag immediately into 3 equal glass jars so that I don’t have to measure the portion everytime. The mess only comes from using the scoop when hungry and in hurry .
The extra individual packaging would be an immediate show-stopper for me. Instead, I vote for a classical plenny shake in the larger 2kg packaging as well (as I don’t like the active formula).
On the small bags I cut off the top part to create a bigger opening. After filling the scoop I tap it lightly against the inside of the bag to flatten the top and knock off any powder that clings to the outside of the scoop. After dumping the scoop into a blender bottle I tap it gainst the sides again to remove stubborn clumps. With this method I rarely spill significant amounts of powder although a light dust is kicked up that requires a wipe down of the table top.
I am still waiting for the new formula Neutral Big Bags but when they had them I did not have to cut off the top to achieve similar results.
I just changed to queal. It has this awesome bag seal that allows you to open it just partially. So now i can make opening smaller then cup radius and just pour the powder. Also tastes better and have more intense flavours.
