Consumer Preferences Dictate the Future of Food Grade Plastic Packaging

Food and beverage manufacturers are leveraging polymers to improve product quality, reduce production and shipping costs, and create more consumer-friendly final products. Converters play an important role in helping brand owners develop food grade plastic packaging that aligns with the needs of their customers.

Discover how consumer preferences for plastic food packaging have changed and how converters can adapt and innovate to help brands keep up.

1. Sanitary Packaging is in Demand

Stay-at-home orders caused consumers to focus on staying in control of their emotional, mental and physical health. Believe it or not, plastic food packaging plays a critical role in consumer wellbeing. Consumers benefit from the physical and emotional safety of packaging that prevents outside contaminates and withstands sanitization processes.

2. Transparent Packaging Design is Trendy

Designing food grade plastic packaging and beverage packaging that showcases the natural beauty of the product within is rapidly gaining popularity in the industry. This clear packaging trend could be considered a win-win for consumers and brands alike, as it allows brands to take a minimalist approach to the packaging design process and highlight the product for consumers.

While product transparency is a major consideration, PMMI also reports that 37% of U.S. consumers find it important to understand ingredients on food labels, and 91% believe that products with recognizable ingredients are healthier. Therefore, designing packaging that makes seeing ingredients easy for consumers will be another way to accommodate this trend. Especially as the spotlight on consumer health expands, the trend to be clear and forthcoming about food ingredients will continue to grow with it.

3. Rise in Personalized and Interactive Packages

Interactive packaging design and gamified packaging invites physical or digital touchpoints with consumers. According to Industrial Packaging, there are two main applications for these types of packaging:

1. Smartphone scanning and augmented reality (AR) capabilities to engage customers with video content.
2. Digital capabilities, such as QR codes, to track shipments and record data about the location, safety, and condition of the package.¹

For example, Jack Daniel’s created a custom app to put a modern spin on their heritage branding. The Jack Daniel’s AR Experience app allows the user to scan the iconic black and white label, which prompts it to unfold and reveal Jack’s story, how the products are made, and more through animations.² This provides consumers with an informative, engaging, and beautifully-designed interactive experience.

Because Gen Z and Millennial buyers prefer to support brands with unique positions and niche products, packaging designers need to meet that expectation by finding ways to incorporate those components. SLD elaborates, “...many traditional package design conventions [are] being challenged with brands paying a more vital tribute to entrepreneurship than the pedigree of establishment.”³

So, what does all this mean for converters? In essence, sharing industry expertise is key to unlocking progress and maintaining a competitive stance in the food and beverage industry. In order to better support its customers, Shell Polymers’ team of experts is gathering valuable industry insights and eager to support converters who work in the food and beverage sector as they embrace new technologies and adapt to emerging trends in food grade plastic packaging.