Gone are the days when food packaging was merely a means to an end – a functional necessity with little room for creativity. Today, the realm of food and beverage packaging innovation is teeming with cutting-edge technologies, ingenious materials, and eco-conscious designs that not only meet consumer demands but also address the pressing challenges faced by our planet.
Image by Peter Bond via Unsplash
As our FoodTech Data Navigator shows, the packaging is a market growing fast, and a key to an enhanced consumer experience – it offers communication, drives engagement, and even inspires brand interactivity. We also firmly believe that companies which don’t get behind packaging innovation trends will be left behind, losing relevance and market share faster than even the most biodegradable packaging can break down. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest trends in packaging innovation right now.
Sustainability resonates with consumers
Pretty much everyone agrees: the use and abuse of plastic is bad. Plastic is everywhere. Microplastics have been found in every part of our bodies and on every continent on Earth. A report by the Minderoo Foundation earlier this year found that the world is producing more single-use plastic waste than ever. The UK alone produces 2.5 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste annually. Consumers are concerned about the plastic packaging problem, with 81% demanding sustainable packaging options.
The problem with plastic is that it’s too easy. Producers love it because it’s cheap, versatile, and abundantly available. Many consumers like it because it’s convenient, and we’ve been sold a lie about being able to recycle it.
The key part to remember here is the consumer experience. Some alternatives to plastic packaging don’t offer the same benefits. Glass, for example, is heavy, and easy to break. Paper and cardboard can’t withstand humidity (not without a plastic coating, anyway – though there are plant- and algae-based layers coming into play, from the likes of Notpla), and come with their own environmental issues. But there are other choices and they don’t have to be a compromise.
The latest figures from our FoodTech Data Navigator show that there are currently 155 startups developing sustainable alternatives to plastic packaging, and since 2013 they’ve collectively raised more than €2 billion.
Image by Conor Brown via Unsplash
Packaging that’s good enough to eat
Some startups are working on packaging alternatives that don’t just biodegrade but are actually edible. Edible packaging is not just an environmental win, but also adds a convenience factor, since individually wrapped products can be eaten along with their edible packaging, great for on-the-go consumption. Plus, edible films made from natural ingredients can be fortified with vitamins, minerals, or other functional components, allowing consumers to obtain nutrients while consuming the packaging itself, great in a health-conscious market.
London-based Notpla is a perfect example. It’s blazing a trail with its seaweed-based biodegradable packaging. Alongside creating sustainable packaging solutions for major events, like the UEFA Women’s EURO Final last year, raising £16.4 million (so far), and winning the Earthshot Prize in 2022, its seaweed-based film is the material used in its Ooho sachets, which are edible capsules designed to be consumed by runners or athletes during sporting events or can also be filled with condiments, coffee, and more.
And Notpla isn’t alone. Indonesian startup Evoware uses seaweed to make edible food wrappers, sachets, and more, while Californian producer Loliware is best known for its seaweed-based straws.
Plus, Foodberry, based in Boston and currently raising its Series A, makes edible packaging based on reverse-engineered fruit skins. These hold together a combination of fruits, nuts, vegetables, proteins and flavours to create unique and nutritious snacks, which it calls ‘Berries’, such as dragon fruit Wellness Berries, blueberry and lemon Yogurt Berries, and roasted red pepper-coated Hummus Berries.
Foodberry edible packaging ‘skins’
IncrEDIBLE Eats, founded by Indian entrepreneur Dinesh Tadepalli, makes vegan, dairy-free and non-GMO spoons from an edible base of wheat, oat, corn, and chickpeas. They come in different flavours, from black pepper to vanilla and chocolate, and are surprisingly resilient, withstanding both hot soup and ice cream. And Belgium’s Do Eat makes edible bowls from potatoes and spent grains, while Israeli startup Anina has developed plant-based ready meals packaged in capsules made from thinly-sliced vegetables which would have gone to waste for being too “ugly”.
Transforming single-use with versatile packaging
So much plastic packaging is single-use, but not all. Some sustainable alternatives are also single-use, but there are certain companies working on multi-use sustainable packaging options, or reinventing traditional packaging to better suit the 21st century, widening their market appeal and offering an improved consumer experience.
Israeli startup TIPA offers customisable, compostable packaging solutions, made from a blend of biopolymers from sustainable harvests. It’s flexible packaging for the food industry includes home compostable one-ply films in a variety of thicknesses and industrially compostable multi-ply laminates in a variety of thicknesses, all of which are designed to keep food fresh whilst leaving behind no harmful residues or microplastics.
TIPA compostable flexible packaging for fresh produce
UK-based Polymateria’s approach is centred around its innovative “biotransformation” technology which alters the properties of plastic to make it biodegradable in nature, enabling plastic packaging waste such as takeaway containers and disposable cups to naturally decompose. The tech comes in pellet form, meaning plastic producers can drop it into their plastic resin during the manufacturing process.
Finnish company Koepala’s flagship product, the Koepala Aterimo
, is a unique packaging concept designed to improve the convenience and functionality of on-the-go food and beverage consumption. It is a patented, foldable, and recyclable container that can be opened into a food bowl, cup or drink box. It is designed to be leak-proof, and its foldable structure means it takes up less space when empty, optimising its storage and transportation efficiency.
Koepala Aterimo packaging solution
Australian startup Packamama has designed an upgrade to conventional wine bottles. Its eco-flat wine bottles are designed to slash the space, weight, emissions and logistics costs from the wine supply chain, and “better fit into consumers’ lives”.
New York-based Ecovative Design produces sustainable packaging materials using mycelium. It creates customisable and biodegradable packaging products that can replace traditional foam packaging materials for a range of products. And CLUBZERØ, based in London, and Bumerang, based in Spain, are focused on reusable packaging for takeaway beverages. It provides versatile cups that are borrowed and returned at designated drop-off points, to be cleaned and reused.
In packaging innovation generally, the CAGR of funding raised between 2019 and 2022 is 70%, a staggering increase, especially when compared to the 13% CAGR within the agrifoodtech ecosystem and the 25% CAGR within plastic alternatives. Not all of this is sustainable, but it is interesting innovation nonetheless, designed to attract consumers and meet their other needs – like health, and even happiness – with new technology.
Scent & flavour-based drinking for health
Air Up, based in Germany, has developed a unique packaging concept for flavoured beverages. Air Up’s approach is designed to enhance the drinking experience by leveraging aroma instead of actual flavourings, which usually come from sweeteners, additives, or artificial flavours.
The Air Up packaging consists of a durable reusable water bottle and a specially designed lid. The lid features a flavour cartridge, which contains a scent pod. When the consumer drinks from the bottle, the air is pulled through the scent pod, releasing an aroma which creates the illusion of flavour, tricking the brain into perceiving that flavour in the water consumed. There is a wide choice of flavour cartridges, leading to a fully customisable sensory experience.
So far, the bottle has been particularly popular with teens, despite its not-inconsiderable price tag (around £30) – great for parents who struggle to get their kids to drink enough water but who also don’t want them drinking artificially sweetened soft drinks – a health win.
Air Up water bottle and flavour cartridges
US-based Cirkul also specialises in personalised hydration solutions. Its innovative water bottle system features a unique cartridge system that allows users to infuse their water with different intensities of various flavors, simply by twisting the dial on the lid and has become popular with consumers looking to add a touch of flavour to their water and avoid sugary drinks
Encouraging interactivity through augmented reality
Integrating AR into packaging can provide consumers with additional information, entertainment, or promotional features, all with a simple scan of a smartphone. Within food packaging, think of step-by-step cooking instructions or recipe suggestions. Detailed nutritional information, ingredient lists, and allergen alerts. Virtual demonstrations, videos, or 3D models that showcase the product’s features, preparation techniques, or serving suggestions. Personalised product recommendations or customised promotions tailored to individual consumer preferences. And gamification elements, like interactive games or challenges related to the product, or rewards, such as discounts or loyalty points, to incentivise continued engagement. All of these add value.
While there are few startups (so far!) working within this space, Australian startup Third Aurora is the company behind Beerscans, a mobile app which uses a smartphone camera, augmented reality and computer vision to scan a beer can, which then pops up an augmented reality label that hovers over the can. This shares the story behind the brewery and beer, tasting notes of the beer, and any other information that a brewery may want to share.
Big Food players are keen to get behind the trend, though. Coca-Cola, for example, released a Starlight bottle for its new “space” flavour last year. When scanned, the bottle allows access to an augmented reality experience, where singer Ava Max appears and sings tracks from her albums against a cosmos backdrop, and was specifically designed to “bring joy to young people”. This was swiftly followed by a “pixel-flavoured” beverage, Zero-Sugar Byte, that was “born in the metaverse”, accompanied by an augmented reality game, which tells the story of BYTE, an 8-bit pixel left behind when Coca-Cola Byte entered the metaverse. Coca-Cola also developed Pixel Point, part of Fortnite’s digital landscape, where consumers can interact with fellow gamers through a series of four sensory-inspired, multiplayer mini-games.
And it’s not just Coca-Cola. Earlier this year, Mondelez International, Inc.’s Oreo brand launched a limited-edition sandwich cookie called the Most OREO OREO, featuring two chocolate wafer cookies sandwiched around a double-stuffed crushed-Oreo-crème filling. It’s marketed as being a “meta” Oreo, and also features an interactive website called the OREOVERSE, where users can play Oreo-themed games.
Why it matters
The common thread through these trends is that they respond to a consumer need, whether that be sustainability, health, convenience, or the ever-growing desire for information at one’s fingertips. F&B packaging has taken great leaps in recent years, reshaping the CPG industry and improving the overall consumer experience. Of course, corporate support for packaging innovation, particularly within sustainability, is a must in order to scale. For both startups and big business, it’s time to get behind the trends, or get lost on the shelves.
Want to know more? Check out our FoodTech Data Navigator
This post Designing Tomorrow’s Packaging Today: Exploring F&B Trends and Optimizing the Consumer Experience appeared first on Forward Fooding - Powering the Food & Food Tech revolution!.
