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9 Food Packaging Trends You Need To Be Aware of In 2022

Product packaging is just as crucial as contents in the food sector. Packaging food promotes the product, makes long-distance shipping easier and extends shelf life. Keeping up with the newest packaging automation trends in the food industry will help you to keep end of line packaging choices on point.

What bag packaging methods do you use to create the most efficient designs for your products? What retail-ready packaging trends should you be aware of? Let's have a look at what the food industry has to offer.

1. Packaging Automation or Smart Packaging

The term "smart packaging" refers to a creative approach to retail-ready packaging. Technology is now available to place the product directly into packaging to give more convenience, security, and information to consumers. 

QR codes or NFC chips, are important parts of food packaging and scanned by using a smartphone for more information on the product to be delivered.

Further, smart packaging monitors a variety of characteristics such as pH, fermentation, and temperature to assure freshness, flavor, and quality. Besides, it ensures the health regulations. Maggi Healthy Soups, for example, employs Nestlé's proprietary 'granulation-based technology', which is the type of end of line packaging that keeps ingredients fresh.  

Cosmetic appeal may also be enhanced when using automation packaging. Budweiser, for example, presented beer mugs with integrated LED lights for the time of the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia. The mugs' lights were turning on when there was a loud noise. The more people were cheering, the brighter the lights became.

During the 2017 Super Bowl, Frito-Tostitos Lay's tortilla chips included LED lights, a sensor for alcohol, and NFC chips. The idea was to have individuals getting drunk to call an Uber service so that they remained safe. 

2. Emotional Engagement

Customers are looking for more than simply a product, as they wish to feel part of something bigger than themselves. When it comes to brand judgment and product packaging, studies show that individuals are more influenced by emotions and not by knowledge. They want emotional material and to have positive feelings leading the way.

Consider the Paper Boat case. To enhance the customers' emotional appeal, this company has effectively blended the sensation of memory into its packaging. Their catchphrase, advertising, and artwork all wonderfully portrayed a certain moment in time.

Bag packaging may also be used to express a company's mission and attitude. Liso's packaging uses high-end visuals to communicate the usage of high-quality products.

3. Vintage Designs

The sentimental value of vintage designs cannot be overstated. These have people becoming more joyful by reminding of simpler times. Any design or indication of a bygone era is referred to as "vintage." This might be a single period or a series of periods. Such designs elicit feelings that aren't only attractive to folks who grew up in that age. They also appeal to others, who have never lived through that era.

 The Van Leeuwen ice cream end of line packaging, Jack Daniel's whiskey, and even the packaging for Parle-G biscuits are great examples on how the elements from the '50s and the '60s may be integrated into design: letterpress typefaces, graphics, pastel hues, or solid mattes.

4. Clear Labeling and Transparent Packaging

38% of customers are ready to acquire a newly introduced product that presents clear product information, says a 2020 study on consumer behavior regarding naked product packaging.

People are aware of the products they consume. While food packaging offers ingredient information, deciphering the packaging tiny print might be difficult. To show what a product contains, companies are using clear labeling and transparent bag packaging.

Redesigned packaging makes it easier to see what's inside each food box. Further, it shows how the prepared meals are healthy.

5. More Portability

Most people have a very active lifestyle. They are always looking for food that's easier to carry, hold, and consume. To accommodate this need, product handling and food packaging manufacturers are making more efforts to add portability to food.

For example, McDonald's has the unique McBike package for bikers. In a collapsible container that's easy to fasten to the bike's handlebar, you can carry fries, a drink, and a burger.

6. Personalization

Personalization has always been an important aspect of product handling and food packaging, now ending up being one of the most popular trends. Over half of Generation Z and millennials, says the Deloitte Consumer Review, want individualized goods. 

End of line packaging customization has become a reality as manufacturing rates have increased. Coca-Cola, for example, introduced personalized gift orders in their online shop. This created a big increase in sales when the company successfully released bottles emblazoned with names.

Smaller food companies may not be able to afford the customized food packaging craze, but there are ways to create memorable packaging. To boost brand memory and appeal, manual customization might involve the use of personalized bags, stickers, gift tags, and boxes. 

7. Minimalism

In package design, minimalism ended up being a significant trend. Simple labeling and retail ready packaging have replaced flashyfonts and complicated designs.

Because it has a straightforward character, minimalism impresses many people. It helps emphasize the product's worthwhileness and doesn't overpower clients with images. 

This design style may be seen in practically all contemporary food packaging, including ketchup bottles, snack bars, and even paper packing for restaurant takeout meals. Maintaining a minimalist design doesn't only help the box seem cleaner, but it also saves money.

8. Gradients

According to market research, 70% of people perceive graphics, color, and form to be the most appealing components of packaging.

Gradients are becoming more and more popular in a variety of design fields. Gradients provide depth and intricacy to logos and bag packaging, making them more intriguing. Gradients may draw attention to products when they are on the shelf, unlike minimalism or historic packaging that employs solid or muted colors.

9. Green Packaging

Food packaging has become more environmentally friendly in recent years. Big companies are now ditching single-use plastics because they want biodegradable, reusable, or recyclable packaging, to be more environmentally conscious.

Final Thoughts

How you package your product plays a large part in the customer experience. The desire for convenient, clean, sustainable, and smart solutions is heavily influencing emerging developments in food packaging.

If you want to move your business to the next level, you’ll need to adopt these new trends as well. 

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