Food and Beverage Trends Spotlight for 2025
Explore 2025 trends in food packaging—flexibles, sustainability, and regulation—and how brands can stay competitive with LLDPE innovations.
Food and beverage packaging remains an enormous global market, and polyethylene is a big part of it, especially blown film. Polyethylene-based food and beverage packaging is expected to reach a market value of $155.76 billion by 2031, with a CAGR of 3.73%1. However, no market is immune to broader trends, regulations, and consumer sentiment.
If converters and brands in food and beverage packaging want to stay competitive, they must keep up with what’s happening. Here’s Shell Polymers’ look at the biggest factors impacting the food and beverage space.
Flexible packaging set to continue growth
Anyone paying attention won’t be surprised by this, but it’s still worth noting: flexible packaging is one of the most significant sources of value and growth for food and beverage packaging. Over the next decade, flexible packaging across the entire economy is predicted to hit a 5% CAGR and $319B market value2, and a significant chunk of that is in the food and beverage space.
When you break down the advantages of LLDPE resin as a material, it’s not hard to see why flexible packaging continues to expand:
- By its very nature, bags and pouches use less plastic than more rigid packaging, offering cost savings and producing less plastic waste per product.
- A lighter weight doesn’t just mean packaging is less expensive to make - it’s also less expensive to ship and reduces the CO₂ emissions required to ship each product. Baby food in flexible plastic pouches, for example, has three times lower lifecycle emissions than glass jars due in part to lighter weight and less need for shipping3.
- Flexible packaging can be more convenient to customers, driving further sales.
- However, flexible packaging still faces the same headwinds as the rest of the economy. Specifically, tariffs threaten to impact global resin supplies, which could drive up the price of North American LLDPE.
Sustainability remains a primary focus for consumers
Sustainability is one of the most significant factors for food and beverage packaging brands to consider. According to a 2022 McKinsey survey, over half of customers will buy products they view as sustainable over those they view aren’t sustainable when price isn’t an issue4.
While this is already eye-opening, what’s even more critical are results from a more recent survey from PDI Insights. Their 2024 survey found that 80% of customers were willing to pay more for sustainable products5, backing up assumptions that customers are increasingly concerned with sustainability.
With 71% of surveyed Americans indicating they are worried about plastic waste6, it’s increasingly more imporatant for brands to demonstrate their commitment to reducing plastic waste and protecting the environment to win over skeptical spenders.
Stay Ahead of Industry Trends
Supply chain challenges continue to affect our industry and the food and beverage market is growing at a rapid pace. Learn how to deal with these changes in our free report.
Regulations could impact growth
It’s not just consumers who are worried about plastic waste. More and more state governments are moving beyond banning single-use plastic bags to tackle the issue - and that includes potential action against flexible packaging.
California passed one of the most aggressive new laws around this, mandating that by 20327:
- Plastic producers help fund recycling programs
- Plastic producers sell 25% less single-use plastic packaging, which includes food and beverage
- Plastic producers must make all single-use packaging recyclable or compostable
- 65% of single-use plastic packaging must be recycled - not just recyclable
This isn’t just posturing - while California is reassessing certain aspects of the law, the state has already banned polystyrene food packaging for failing to meet deadlines associated with this legislation, and other states like Oregon are following suit8.
3 key takeaways for brands and converters
1. Flexible PE packaging succeeds for a reason
Whether you judge by performance, cost, or convenience, flexible packaging made from LLDPE is simply difficult not to use. Despite the above headwinds, this sector will continue to grow.
2. Plastic waste isn’t the whole sustainability story
Customers and governments are right to be concerned about plastic waste - but it's important to consider the real sustainability tradeoffs involved in bans and buying decisions. A new study from Michigan State University, that was independently verified by the International Organization for Standardization (IOS), found that plastic packaging emits less CO₂ than alternative materials due to its light weight, which reduces transport emissions and better performance at preventing food waste9.
3. Brands and converters have options
Fortunately, new technologies and innovative strategies allow converters and brands to fight perceptions of unsustainability and comply with new regulations to reduce plastic waste and emissions. Mono-material films can improve recyclability, either by using monolayer film, or investing in multilayer film extrusion machines that can layer LLDPE for improved recyclability. And supply chain disruptions and price increases can be mitigated by diversifying resin supplies, rather than relying solely on imports and facilities in the Gulf Coast.
Shell Polymers gets food and beverage
Shell Polymers is here to help food and beverage brands create high-performing packaging.
- We have several grades of LLDPE resin already commercialized.
- Our location in Monaca, PA, helps reduce supply chain delays and emissions by shortening the distance pellets travel to reach many converters.
- Our Application Hall has state-of-the-art film extrusion machines you can run trials on if you’re curious about upgrading your blown film equipment.
- We have industry-leading expertise across different extrusion methods, including one of our Senior Blown Film Technical Service engineers, Shaun Pirtle.
Don’t wait to make a (Real)ationship that could boost your business. Contact us today to learn how we can help you improve your food and beverage packaging.
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