Clean Labelling: One in Two Shoppers Reads the Ingredients List on the Packaging

It’s a global trend: consumers place more emphasis on sustainable products and high-nutrient food and beverage. And this attitude is not limited to ingredients. Packaging is also expected to comply with environmental protection aspects and be free from substances detrimental to health. This means packaging is increasingly moving into focus.

Today, many consumers not only pay attention to what they drink. Their demands made on packaging are also rising. Nutrients are expected to be conserved and the contents protected from the impact of light. Furthermore, some three quarters of food shoppers expect the packaging material used not to impair the taste of products, according to a trend survey conducted in 2018.  Over 90% assume that glass bottles do not influence the aroma; roughly over 50% of all consumers polled even believe that this is also the case with plastic bottles.

What’s more – consumers deliberately opt for or against products and packaging based on responsible eating habits and ethical standards. This was shown by a study conducted by research institute Innova Market Insights in 2017. According to this study, half of all American, British and German consumers read the list of ingredients on food packaging. Seven in ten shoppers in the USA and United Kingdom wish to know and understand the ingredients.  

They refuse incomprehensible and confusing labelling and opt against buying such products. Forecasts, however, even go one step further: the trend research institute Mintel anticipates that consumers will demand even more transparency and traceability of food products from the industry in future. Nothing new for the packaging industry and its associated companies: traceability and transparency across the entire process chain are requirements for which this industry has already come up with numerous solutions.

Ethical standards are also gaining in importance for food shoppers. As a result, ethical product statements for new developments in the food and beverage segment have clearly increased over the past few years. At the same time, more and more criticism is being voiced by consumer protection organisations and the public at large of so-called greenwashing statements. Branded products manufacturers are well advised to thoroughly verify slogans and product claims before printing them onto their packaging.