As one of the four major families of food packaging, paper packaging has shown its unique charm and value to both consumers and producers because of its environmental protection and renewability, and has become synonymous with safety, fashion and style. What functions does paper packaging have under its beautiful appearance? How will paper packag lead the food industry to stand out in the future? Paper packag has already changed the Chinese food industry. Who will be the next to change it? Let us walk into the world of paper packaging together.
1. Food cannot be separated from packaging
First, let us make a reverse assumption: what will happen to food without packaging? The final result is imaginable. A large amount of food will rot prematurely, leading to significant food waste.The final destination of rotten and wasted food is – landfill.
Over the years, there have been many calls in the market to reduce the use of packaging. We are not opposed to reducing excessive packaging, but we believe that we need to think about packag from another perspective – only when food is packaged and does not deteriorate or has a longer shelf life can more food be consumed instead of being wasted as garbage. According to statistics from relevant United Nations organizations, about 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted worldwide, equivalent to one-third of the total production, while there are still 815 million people who are hungry, accounting for 11% of the world’s population. The total amount of wasted food is enough to feed the hungry population. Packag is one of the important and effective solutions to help reduce food waste.
2. The value of food packaging
As a carrier of food, food packaging is an integral part of food. The value that food packaging brings to the food industry includes:
Value brought to consumers: Maslow’s theory divides consumer needs into five categories: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, respect needs and self-realization. As the saying goes, “food is the first necessity of the people”, and “safety is the first necessity of food”. People must first live – have food and be full; secondly, live healthily – safe and hygienic; thirdly, live better – nutritious, fresh, easy to carry, sensory and cultural. Therefore, the most basic demand of consumers for food packaging, or the most basic value of food packaging for consumers, is “safety, freshness and convenience”.
Value brought to producers:
2-1. Image value display: As the saying goes, “A man lives by his face, a tree lives by its skin.” In the past, people only cared about “gold and jade inside,” but in modern society, people also want “gold and jade outside.” According to DuPont’s law, 63% of consumers buy goods based on their packaging. Good food needs good packaging, and branded food needs branded packaging even more. As a food carrier, packaging is not only a container and protects food, but also provides consumers with convenience, ease of use, advertising, publicity, guidance and other image value displays.
2-2. Reduce packaging costs: For manufacturing companies, factors that affect packaging costs include the cost of the selected packaging materials, the rationality of the packaging design capacity, the maximum utilization of the packaging space, and the transportation costs directly affected by the packaging weight.
2-3. Increase product added value: After food is packaged, it attracts consumers to buy it beyond the actual value of “food + packaging”. This is the added value that packaging brings to food. Of course, the level of added value is closely related to the selection of packaging materials, packaging design, design creativity, and marketing techniques.
3. “Four Families” of Food Packaging
According to statistics, the main food packaging materials on the market are paper, plastic, metal and glass, which can be called the “Four Families”. Paper packaging accounts for 39% and has an accelerating growth trend. Food paper packaging can become the first of the “Four Families” and is favored by market consumers and producers, which fully demonstrates the value of paper packaging in food packaging.
Compared with metal packaging, paper packaging has better shelf image and value display effect, and is lightweight.
Research shows that plastic lunch boxes currently used in the market take at least 5 years to fully degrade in the soil, and each plastic bag requires at least 470 years to degrade, while paper naturally degrades in just 3 to 6 months on average. Therefore, compared with plastic packaging, paper packaging is safer, more hygienic and easier to degrade.
4. Future trends of food paper packaging
Before discussing the future trends of food paper packaging, we need to analyze what are the “pain points” of the current food industry?
From the consumer’s perspective – anxiety: my country is a country with a large food consumption structure. Food safety issues have frequently occurred in China over the years, seriously endangering the physical health and life safety of consumers. The public’s trust in food companies has been declining, resulting in a huge safety trust crisis in the food market.
From the perspective of producers: Worries: Worries about food problems being complained by consumers and exposed by the media; Worries about being shut down by regulatory authorities for failing to meet standards; Worries about being misunderstood by the market or being targeted by competitors’ deliberate rumors; Worries about fake and inferior food appearing in the market and affecting the brand image, etc. Because every problem that they worry about will be a fatal blow and harm to food producers.
Therefore, from the perspective of the value of food packaging and the “pain points” of the current food industry, the future trends of food paper packag mainly include:
Ø Green and environmentally friendly:
“Green packaging,” also known as “sustainable packaging,” means that it is recyclable, easily degradable, and lightweight. Packaging also has a “life cycle”. We obtain raw materials from nature, design and process them into products, and then dispose of the packaging after using the products. Green packaging means to reduce the use of raw materials as much as possible in this process, or to reduce the damage to nature during processing as much as possible. It is gratifying that more and more countries and regions in the world are restricting or banning the use of plastic products in different ways. The trend of “replacing plastic with paper” is becoming increasingly obvious.
Ø Safer:
In the future, paper packaging safety will not only require that paper packaging and materials be non-toxic and harmless, but will also need to address additional concerns such as preventing counterfeit and inferior food and extending the shelf life of food. Consequently, improving the safety index of food through the safety of paper packaging will enhance the overall safety of the brand image. In recent years, with the rise of online shopping channels, counterfeit and inferior food has more opportunities to take advantage of. Counterfeit and inferior food purchased online has become a disaster, seriously endangering consumer health and safety, and ruining the carefully built brand image of manufacturers.
Ø Functionalization of packaging:
At present, all kinds of paper packaging are developing in the direction of utility functionalization, including oil-proof, moisture-proof, high barrier, active packaging… and modern intelligent technologies, such as QR code, blockchain anti-counterfeiting, etc. How to combine with traditional paper packaging is also the development trend of paper packaging in the future.Manufacturers mainly achieve the functionalization of paper packaging through printing and packaging processes or by using specialized paper packaging materials.
Discussion – Who will be the next to change?
The food industry has a market of 12 trillion yuan and is still growing continuously. How can some brand companies be happy and some sad? There are more and more food sub-industries and companies that are reaching the ceiling. What can stand out? The future competition will be a competition of resource integration in the industrial chain. Perhaps, this is the question that every operator in the food packaging chain needs to think about.
The future has come. Following the development trend of food paper packaging, the current international liquid packaging giants, domestic local liquid packaging giants, internationally renowned Western fast food chains, and domestic excellent food paper packaging companies have developed a series of liquid packaging and food paper packaging with various functions. These domestic and foreign food production and packaging companies that follow the trend are bringing consumers more safety, hygiene, environmental protection, convenience, nutrition, and appearance with a high degree of social responsibility…
Food paper packaging – the choice of the times! Solve the doubts for consumers and relieve the worries for producers!
Finally, our sharing of food packag products ends here. If you want to know more about food packag products, please contact OPHX!!!
