Bakery Packaging in a Post-pandemic World
COVID-19 has changed our lives in many ways, including our attitude towards packaging. It seems not long ago that the BBC’s Blue Planet II and the ‘Attenborough effect’ was causing a tidal wave of change in consumer’s attitudes towards packaging. At the time, a reported 88% were found to have changed their purchasing behaviour since the programme, according to Waitrose & Partners Food and Drink Report 2018-19. The same research found customers increasingly buying unpacked fruit and vegetables too. Sales of loose pears, for example, were growing at 30 times the rate of bagged pears. But then came the pandemic.
By Zsófia Kertész, Development Engineer at Campden BRI Hungary
After the packaging-free trend had been establishing itself in many sectors, including the bakery sector, the scales were then tipped and sales of packaged bakery items soared in 2020. This was fuelled mainly by hygiene concerns but is also thought to be due to the quicker checkout that packaged goods can allow. While this may be a temporary trend, it does mean that the consumer demand has been for more, rather than less packaging.
Packaging has long been known as an effective method of protecting food. Since its emergence on our supermarket’s shelves, the principles of packaging have highlighted safety. Its ability to maintain a product’s integrity while helping prevent any cross-contamination issues has always been a large selling point, and this explains the sustained uptake seen during the global health crisis.
As mentioned, packed products provide a sense of safety and hygiene for the consumers. But if the right technology is applied, it can also prolong the shelf-life of the product and maintain its quality during storage.
Where Are We Now and What’s to Come?
With the population of many nations seeing their country as overcoming the pandemic, it’s expected that attention will shift once again to the environmental issues often associated with food and drink packaging. Yet, there’s no doubt that the imprints of the pandemic will long be etched on consumer’s minds. It’s fair to assume then that we’ll soon find ourselves in an interesting situation – one where consumers will be considering both the safety and environmental impact of the products they’re purchasing.
What Does This Mean for Manufacturers?
It means that we’re entering a period where choosing the best packaging for a product has never been more important. Choosing packaging that balances the manufacturer’s needs while addressing consumers’ concerns – regarding ethical, hygiene and environmental issues – is an emerging priority. Beyond their concerns, a food business’ brand can be strengthened and made to appeal to consumers if it wraps the product appropriately (reducing excess packaging) and uses environmentally friendly materials.
Choosing the Right Packaging
Deciding which packaging to choose can be a mammoth task – especially for small food companies. These businesses often rely on experience and the advice of their suppliers to select the most appropriate packaging for their product, but this may ultimately narrow their options. Our experience at Campden BRI has found that many food businesses – big and small – are not aware of the new, available technologies that can help them choose the most appropriate packaging.
To fill this gap and to enable the implementation of new packaging solutions, a team of researchers and packaging experts have been developing a decision support system (DSS) as part of a project known as GLOPACK (Granting society with LOw environmental impact innovative PACKaging). The project aims to use the DSS software tool to provide a food manufacturer/packaging producer with an insight into the packaging materials available for their specific product. By extension, it will help them to select which one best matches their requirements.
You can read the rest of this article in the May-June Issue of European Baker & Biscuit magazine, which you can access by clicking here.