Oh the irony!

I'm sure that if we started to send aid to Africa in the kind of packaging those scissors are in they would sympathise.

Being sort of elected to be i/c laundry in the BumbleBee household I wash my black and yellow pyjamas by hand get annoyed with the soap powder boxes which are initially apparently leakproof when you buy them but start to shed fine trails of powder as soon as you breach their defences.

Especially when eking the last grains from the container, you tip it up and the bloody stuff pours out of every cardboard orifice immediately prior to you treading in it and tramping it into all the nearby rugs

Now, that reminds me. The same tough and sharp plastic packaging that printer cartridges and various tools come in.

You virtually need to borrow the "jaws of life" from the Fire Service to open the packaging. And when you do, you usually sever your carotid artery on the sharp edges.

I've lost count of the pints of blood I've had transfused after severing various main arteries on such items. You'd think I'd have learned by now. Once, I died 3 times in the same day.

At the risk of actually bringing down the tone of this thread with a semi serious post, open that type of packaging with a can opener. Far quicker, easier and tidier than the jaws of life... and slightly fewer deaths per package.

They still use soap powder in Scotland? My mum is almost 80 and uses liquid...

I work in the food industry, though not with rice or pasta.

The reason behind the packaging tearing issue is simply cost. A thinner polypropylene film is cheaper, but is more susceptible to tearing when subjected to very little stress.

Think of crisp packets, the value ones are 30 micron film and have the rice/pasta packet issue. The posh ones like kettle chips etc use 60 or 80 micron and are much more robust.

Like most things, it all comes down to cost.

Obviously, facetious comments aside, the scissor way or the tin opener way depending on what you decide, to be honest if you use the correct procedure no big deal. Then again it all depends how you think how difficult an easy procedure can or cannot be....