How innovations in packaging are transforming the food business
Food packaging used to only serve to confine goods to keep them safe and fresh, as well as to facilitate retailing and distribution. Its significance has grown significantly in recent years, and it is still changing.
The Global Midwest Alliance sponsored a conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on May 29 with the theme “Fresher, faster, tastier: How packaging innovations are changing the food industry.”
The managing director and chief executive officer of the Chicago-based not-for-profit education organization, Gail Longmore, stated, “Food packaging has become a vital source of reinvigoration for a stable yet evolving sector.” “As new products and categories are created in response to consumer demand for fresher and tastier options, the food business is changing quickly. A crucial conduit between those who produce and those who consume food goods is provided by packaging.
“Entrepreneurs can use innovations in packaging to generate value, expand their market reach, and create jobs.” Moreover, cutting-edge packaging tools and methods are crucial for concerns pertaining to food safety, trade, and distribution.
According to David Oppedahl, senior business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, food packaging accounts for 2.3 cents of every dollar spent on food. This entire cost include not just thethe actual package that the customer buys, in addition to shipping containers, printing expenses, and other expenses.
Sealants are included in that as well. According to Tony Knoerzer, senior vice-president of sales at UltraThinSeal in Columbus, Ohio, it is feasible to employ cutting-edge technology, including ultrasonic sealing, to shrink seal sizes, which in turn saves materials and increases revenues.
He explained, “It’s case pack economics.” Consider chips as an example. The quantity of cases utilized depends on how many bags fit inside of them. This in turn affects the price of corrugated material and delivery. You can fit more bags into the case if you switch to a bag with less air and a stronger, thinner closure.
Retailers gain as well.”The brand’s facings remain the same on the shelf if the bag is narrower, but there is now more room in an aisle for extra merchandising,” Mr. Knoerzer stated.
Packaging design can also affect how consumers perceive the quality of a product. Mr. Knoerzer described how the interior layer of the bag was changed from metallic aluminum to white by PepsiCo Inc.’s Lay’s potato chips.
He remarked, “You cannot see oil on the white layer.” “There were fewer product quality complaints and returns after this switch was made.”So how do businesses innovate in terms of goods and packaging? Soft innovation, according to Ciulla Associates’ executive creative director and chief executive officer, Sam Ciulla, of Ciulla Associates in Chicago, takes the shape of new tastes, sizes, and seasonal products.
“Too many businesses engage in this, with dubious results,” he remarked.Mr. Ciulla stated that more hard innovation is required. This takes the shape of exclusive structural modifications to a standard product.
“What came first: the product or the package?” should not have an answer at the conclusion of the development process. The two ought to be created concurrently and address a necessity.Mr. Ciulla used the Pillsbury frostings in filled pastry bags from General Mills as an example.
“We discovered via research that consumers enjoy decorating cakes and cupcakes at home,” he stated. However, they are unwilling to purchase and fill pastry bags. We contributed to the creation of a filled pastry bag that makes professional frosting piping possible for everyone.Four different designs are possible with the built-in star tip: swirls, waves, rosettes, and stars. It’s a packaged good that meets a demand from a customer.
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Backyard Farms L.L.C. in Madison, Maine is an additional example. The business sells tomatoes that are picked ripe and delivered in a day to grocery stores. This was a structural branding project that had to promote the fresh, friendly, local, sustainable, ripe, and tasty brand features of Backyard Farms, with the phrase “not grown too far from here.”
“Our task was to devise a packaging system that would facilitate the transportation and exhibition of the tomatoes, while also preserving them in their distinct cluster of eight tomatoes arranged like a vine,” Mr. Ciulla stated. “That is exactly what a craft paper box with a clear window and a picket fence does.”
The final package design takes the surroundings into account in addition to shape and function. At least 35% of the paperboard used to make the boxes is post-consumer recycled. In the neighboring town of Augusta, Maine, they are produced entirely on wind energy and printed with soy inks. In order to save delivery miles, the company sources their master cases locally in Auburn, Maine, and they are entirely recyclable. The consumer is informed of this through visual aids, the website, and the narrative on the back of the box.
The goal of Nonni’s Foods, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was to grow into the niche natural foods market. Nonni’s decided to showcase the brand’s narrative and its use of whole food products on the container as a way to set itself apart from the company’s primary club store offerings offered under the La Dolce Vita brand.
Mr. Ciulla stated, “The founder’s Italian ancestry served as inspiration for La Dolce Vita, and the biscotti are made with non-GMO ingredients and nothing artificial.” Today’s N.O.S.H. (natural, organic, sustainable, healthy) consumers actively seek out these product attributes. For the N.O.S.H. customer, the original club version of La Dolce Vita was antiquated and unduly elaborate. Nonni’s sought to promote a more modern take on a classic product, created with only premium, clear labels and a genuine recipe.
La Dolce Vita’s recently created packaging and brand identity adopt a chic style. The prominent placement of branding and taste communication results in a composition that is focused and lets the biscotti and ingredients take center stage.
He claimed that “the iconic, simple doily serves multiple functions.” It displays the product, conveys the flavor, and aids in building a powerful brand block at the shelf. The pinstripe background conveys both a contemporary, vivid brand statement that seems really high-end and classic baking.