How to Open Plastic Sealed Products?

flyinglentris

Disabled and Retired Veteran
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I spend minutes and minutes trying to open some plastic sealed products. Those little mustard, soy sauce and honey packets are often very tough when I see them in restaurants. At home, sealed cold cut packages are the big bother.

Does anyone have a unique trick to getting those plastic sealed products open, - without ripping into them with a knife?
 
Although nothing to do with food.............

I bought an external SD card reader a long time ago.

I had to demolish the packing before I could use it.

The external port did not line up with the internal slot, therefore I couldn't use it.

I took it back to the shop.

They said "You've opened the packaging".

"But I had to to discover that it was faulty".

Five minutes later following inspection by three other members of staff and the manager - "OK, we'll replace it".

"Right, I'll open it to check if it is not faulty before I accept it".

"You cannot do that, if you open it and discover it's faulty we cannot then sell it to someone else"

????

I asked for and obtained a full refund.
 
If only I could take moldy bread back for a refund after it goes bad a week after purchase.

:roflmao:
 
The other thing I have trouble opening is those sealed tops with a sort of plastic tab, on the tops of mustard bottles, coffee creamer bottles and other bottles. These should just twist off, but they rarely do and I have to knife a slit in them, twist and then peel the seal off.
 
I'll tell you what I do...I have a credit card version of a Swiss Army knife, meaning it's got some of the more popular traditional Swiss Army knife components built into a little credit card shape, like this:

78942

Photo courtesy of Amazon

On the right side, that's a little knife that slides out, and next to that, a pair of little scissors, obviously (the other stuff, just for FYI, is a little punch, a nail file/screwdriver, tweezers, a toothpick, and a little ballpoint pen).

It's about the thickness of three credit cards, so it fits pretty easily in a wallet. When I'm out and about, the scissors and the knife are very handy for opening those little packets you mentioned, as well as a lot of other things (clipping a hangnail, for example, or a stray thread).

At home, I do keep a pair of non-food scissors, for opening things like cereal boxes, snack chip bags, cookies, etc. As we get older, many of us get issues with arthritis or, like with me, tendon issues, that can make opening bags one of life's little frustrations.

If I were Grand Poobah Of Everything, I'd make it a law that all canned goods must have a pull-top, all bagged goods must be resealable, and all small appliances must have retractable/storable cords.
 
I spend minutes and minutes trying to open some plastic sealed products.
I HATE them! ALL of them!!:laugh::laugh::laugh:
I was under the impression that the original idea was to make them "childproof", when in fact, they´re adult proof if you happen to be over 65! I swear that one day, I´m going to get so frustrated, I´m going to slice the top off the BBQ Sauce bottle with a machete.
I´m actually considering boycotting my favourite brand of greek yoghurt. Open the lid and there´s a clear plastic seal on top, with a tiny tab on one side. EVERY time I try to open the seal by pulling the tab, the tab comes off in my hand. The only way to open it after that is by cutting it open with a knife, thereby risking stabbing oneself in the hand or accidentally digging a hole in the plastic container.:D:D
And don´t even get me started on extracting pills from or razors from their packaging...
 
I HATE them! ALL of them!!:laugh::laugh::laugh:
I was under the impression that the original idea was to make them "childproof", when in fact, they´re adult proof if you happen to be over 65! I swear that one day, I´m going to get so frustrated, I´m going to slice the top off the BBQ Sauce bottle with a machete.
I´m actually considering boycotting my favourite brand of greek yoghurt. Open the lid and there´s a clear plastic seal on top, with a tiny tab on one side. EVERY time I try to open the seal by pulling the tab, the tab comes off in my hand. The only way to open it after that is by cutting it open with a knife, thereby risking stabbing oneself in the hand or accidentally digging a hole in the plastic container.:D:D
And don´t even get me started on extracting pills from or razors from their packaging...

I share your frustration, else, I wouldn't have started this thread.
 
That's not quite what I was talking about, but I will try to post a photo of a twist tab later.

Here are the examples ...






 
Removing the top seal from cooking oil. 75% of the time I break the connecting plastic and have to dig out the seal with a knife.

Yeah, all my oil bottles with that kind of lid look like some psycho came through with a hacksaw and decapitated them. :whistling:
 
...and now you´ve reminded me of another issue.
If, by any vague chance, you DO manage to get the top of, there´s a 9/10 chance you´ll be splattered with
  • mustard
  • honey
  • agave syrup
:laugh::laugh:

It's usually those flat packs that splatter me, - and that means getting splattered out in a restaurant.
 
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