A TikTok user named Oriana (@oriana_isabella) posted footage of what appears to be a recurring issue with Talenti Gelato’s lids.
In a clip that’s accrued more than 4.7 million views since it was posted, someone can be seen having a hard time removing the plastic lid from the top of a Talenti Gelato tub. A number of other TikTokers have said that they, too, have suffered this same issue.
@oriana_isabella @Talenti Gelato ♬ son original – Kesiah
“POV: your favorite ice cream is Talenti,” a text overlay in the video reads. Oriana records a person struggling to cut open a lid of Talenti Gelato using a knife and fighting like heck to get to the frozen dairy goodness inside. They try piercing the top of the plastic lid and cutting around the edges of the screw on lid, but to no avail.
There’ve been several people online who’ve aired their gripes with Talenti Gelatos lids, like this Reddit post featuring an irate consumer of the product asking why in the world they’re so difficult to open. They titled their post to the r/nostupidquestions sub: “How do you open Talenti jars, and why are they so hard to open?” The redditor opines that they were unable to extricate the lids from the rest of the container on two separate occasions.
“My usual method is holding it with a rubber egg-poacher thing around the base and unscrewing it with a silicone potholder, but even that’s not working,” they lamented.
The social media user even referenced a 2017 phenomenon that saw throngs of people complaining about the trouble they’ve had unscrewing the tops of lids, one that Thrillist referenced in a piece in the same year. The article states that customers resorted to “hacking” the containers with knives in order to enjoy their dessert: “To alleviate the problem, people have taken to the tool shed, where they’ve used about every conceivable piece of hardware to pry open the lids’ iron grip.”
The purported reasoning behind Talenti’s lid issues stemmed from a mechanical packaging issue that saw contraptions on the supply line screwing the tops of the containers on too tightly for human hands to successfully remove the lids.
Several X users took to the platform, tagging Talenti to let the brand know about their frustrations in opening its packaging. It seems like the problem has persisted somewhat, however, as in September 2022, Talenti published a post addressing the issues customers were facing with its packaging. “We’re so sorry – we’re actively working on a fix for some of our lids that are too tight. In the meantime, please don’t try and find alternate, and potentially unsafe, ways to open the jar. Instead, send us a DM, so we can work on a replacement for you. Our apologies,” the post reads.
Commenters who saw Oriana’s post, seemed to affirm that the tightened lid phenomenon of Talenti’s containers are a reoccurring issue that could be attributed to an inherent design flaw. “I work at the talenti factory in Italy and this issue is caused when we manufacture the containers the lids get fused to the jar due to overheating,” one person said.
But there was one user who said that they’ve never once encountered this kind of heartache when purchasing a Talenti product: “Whataaaaa I’ve never experience this. I just twist the cap off…”
There were also folks who offered up some helpful advice: “Just run the top of the jar under warm/hot water for like a min then open. It always works for me!”
Talenti’s packaging differs from many other ice cream brands in that they are shipped and placed in BPA-free plastic containers the brand says are sustainable. According to the Mitsubishi Chemical Group, plastic, by its very nature, its susceptible to expanding/contracting with temperature fluctuations: “Due to their chemical structure, plastic materials expand in heat and contract in cold to varying degrees. Such changes in the dimensions of a material can lead to mating and clearance issues, and additionally can weaken the mechanical performance of the material over time.”
While Talenti’s clear plastic packaging may offer up a distinctive look that helps it stand apart from other ice cream offerings in the freezer section, it’s not difficult to imagine that a container, created in a room temperature factory, would contract, and possibly fuse the bottom of the container to its lid, when placed in freezing temperatures.
The Daily Dot reached out to Talenti via email and Oriana via TikTok comment for further information.
