With such a wide ray of options, it can sometimes be hard to figure out which food packaging material is best for your food product
Listed below are some of the top eco-friendly food packaging materials you can choose to use!
Metal
Companies have been using the material metal for packaging since the 1990s. The renewable food packaging material, metal, is considered one of the more friendly packaging methods. That is why metal is commonly used for storing canned veggies, soups, and occasionally fruit. Metal does not only have many different designs to choose from but has proven to be safe and sustainable. Metal packaging is recyclable which will help the environment conservations while reducing waste.
Glass
Glass is considered a trusted eco-friendly material that is safe and healthy. This eco-friendly packaging material, glass, is used for its ability to preserve a product’s taste and integrity. Glass is most commonly used for bottles but is also used for storing, jams, and sauces (ex. marinara sauce, salsa, etc.). The main advantage glass offers is that is can be used over and over again without losing the qualities of its original look.
Compostable Bowls with Lids
Compostable bowls with lids packaging is a byproduct of sugar manufacturing factories. The eco-friendly packaging material, compostable bowls with lids, is simply made from sugarcane fiber and is 100% biodegradable. Compostable bowls with lids are most commonly used when serving hot food on the go. For example, Chipotle uses compostable bowls to put all their bowls and salads in.
Recycled Cardboard and Paper
Recycled cardboard and paper are packaging materials that are made completely of organic materials. This eco-friendly material, recycled cardboard, and paper are used for packaging cereal boxes, fast food boxes, frozen food boxes, etc. Though one downside of this material is that it can contain some harmful mineral oils and other substances that can contaminate foods that are past the safe for consumption level.
Butcher Paper
Butcher paper, also known as Kraft paper and brown paper, is an eco-friendly packaging material made from wood pulp. With butcher paper, being made from wood pulp means the material is recyclable and compostable. Butcher paper is used for many different things. A popular use being brown paper bags. These bags are used throughout grocery stores and also popularly used for a sack lunch.
Cornstarch
Cornstarch packaging material comes from corn and maize plants. Since the cornstarch material is made of plants it is biodegradable. If this eco-friendly material is disposed of correctly after being used it will breakdown into carbon dioxide and water causing no harm to the environment. Cornstarch material is similar to compostable bowls with lids, making their uses quite similar.
PET Plastic
PET plastic is a renewable food packaging material that uses non-toxic, flexible, strong, recyclable, and safe materials. For safety reasons, consumers prefer PET plastic for packaging over glass packaging. The eco-friendly material, PET plastic, is used to package ketchup, salad dressing, soft drinks, vitamins, etc. It as well as having the advantage of being available in multiple designs, sizes, and shapes.
In conclusion, when trying to choose a renewable food packaging material to protect the environment you can’t fully go wrong with the abundance of options you are given. Although you do have to decide which material is best for packaging your food product. Be smart with your choices and you will get the support you are looking for.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about renewable food packaging, please reach out to the NewPoint team. If you are interested in more food marketing topics, please visit our Food for Thought page or check out NewPoint’s Patrick Nycz’s book: Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain.
To identify and isolate areas for improvement in shopper marketing program strategies and tactics to further your CPG brand growth against set KPIs:
Maximize the economic performance of your CPG brand shopper marketing investment
Increase velocity at retail and consumer brand affinity
This shopper marketing audit will detail and contrast your CPG brand shopper marketing and messaging versus that of industry standard competitive practices and will include, but not limited to:
Target market reach, integrated retail marketing support, promotional continuity & awareness, offers and incentives, and tactical execution timing
Go-to-market launch strategies, timing, and tactical execution
Deliverables
Marketing Communication Audit Report
The deliverable will be a white paper with NewPoint Marketing findings and recommendations related to marketing activities in one retail partnership or DMA/market as defined by the client.
Brant brings 20+ years of experience to NewPoint as chief brand communicator and marketing-plan contributor.
Brant’s specialty is bringing an outside, investigative perspective that can feel alternately “rigorous” or “exasperating” depending on your point of view. Yet, he never fails to uncover a business’s unique selling proposition—one which can serve as a brand foundation for marketing that is compelling, creative and “sticky.”
Throughout his career, Brant’s applied his skill set to a broad range of business applications along the food supply-and-service chain. His services have provided vital clarity for all types of operations, from the more conventional food and food equipment manufacturers to the adjacent enterprises that partner with them, such as the Purdue University College of Agriculture.
Stephanie Bossung
Food industry marketing expertise—from retail to food-service and food-service equipment— is a natural outcome of having deep knowledge in every facet of a business’ operation. With 10 years in branding and business development, preceded by 15 years in mass media and promotions, Stephanie is an FMI Emerge mentor, holds an executive-level expertise in sales, marketing, media, and production management.
This exceptionally diverse skill set adds value for NewPoint clients by providing a full complement of perspectives on food-industry brand management endeavors.
Wired for a hawkish attention to detail while also maintaining a high-resolution view of the big picture, Stephanie is uniquely able to provide astute branding direction and simultaneously apply the business principles necessary to squeeze more bang out of every marketing buck.
Patrick Nycz
A member of the Forbes Agency Council and quoted in the New York Times, USA Today and Adweek, Patrick Nycz is the author of Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain: Marketing Strategies to Grow Local and Regional Food Brands. He is an FMI Emerge mentor, an American Advertising Federation’s Silver Medal Award winner, and the Founding President of NewPoint Marketing, a full-service food industry marketing firm focused on food industry brands On a mission to grow.
Patrick’s vision for NewPoint emerged from his team’s success using this proven model for food industry clients and is fueled by NewPoint-funded food buyers and food manufacturers research around tracking consumer, industry, and ongoing food trends.
Kristy Blair
Since starting her 20-year career in commercial graphic design at one of the foremost catalog retailers in the world, Kristy’s visual branding skills have organically narrowed into the food-industry niche.
In that time, she’s directed graphic identities for snack food and restaurant startups, print materials for multiple agricultural seed companies, display graphics and merchandiser signage for major food-equipment manufacturers and everything in between.
Today, as one of the key brand architects for NewPoint clients, she continues to lead our visual research & development team, always working to find the innovative median between the best practices worth honoring and the accepted rules worth breaking.