When walking in the grocery store, the thing that I noticed most was the unnecessary amount of boxes that are covering products. The products that I believed were most successful in reducing packaging was when the material used for the packaging was the material that was being printed on and became the packaging. I saw examples of this with cheeses, lunch meat etc. What I deemed wasteful was the amount of boxes that were encasing the product inside. This was very apparent in the frozen meal section. Almost all of the food was put inside a plastic container with a plastic lid that is then placed inside a cardboard box that has all the packaging information on it.
I chose the Jimmy Dean breakfast bowls as an example. When I opened the packaging, the inside of the cardboard box was completely white and the black plastic microwable bowl inside had nothing on it other than the embossed jimmy dean logo. With this project I’d like to see if there’s an alternative for frozen meal packagin that allows the container for the food to be the thing on the shelf. After all, in my own experience, the cardboard box gets misshapen and warped in your freezer anyways.
When starting this project, here are some things that I know I want to keep in mind. The containers need to be the right shape to not waste space when packaging. For example, currently the Jimmy Dean bowls are a circular container in a rectilinear cardboard box. If we took away the box, we would see all the wasted space when stacking the bowls in shipping containers. Also, the product needs to have the information facing OUT when people go through the grocery store freezer aisles. Does this mean if the information is on the top of the bowl it needs to be able to be placed on its side? Additionally, the product needs to be well-sealed. It’s just now occurred to me that the reason things are double packaged is in case the seal breaks on the container, and so food doesn’t go everywhere. Another thing to think about is how people buy and use the frozen meals. For a frozen breakfast bowl, I know for me personally, I want to buy breakfast for the week. If it was a frozen lunch or dinner, I might be more inclined to buy just one. Maybe I could use this to my advantage and bulk package a frozen meal.
When researching sustainable packaging I came across a company called Tosca. They are a sustainable company that uses reusable secondary packaging. It seems like these are the containers that package and ship things to stores, which is currently done by ample amounts of cardboard. Imagine the boxes that store workers keep excess product in and restock shelves with. The negatives they give for traditional packaging are: easily damaged, wasteful, costly, contaminated and non-uniform. Though this is not necessarily talking about my project, the way they talk about cardboard is interesting in relation to how I believe the frozen meal section is full of boxes.
In an article by NFRAWeb.org about green habits within the frozen food section, they say, “Close to 6 in 10 consumers surveyed in a National Retail Federation (NRF)/IBM study said they are willing to change their shopping habits to reduce environmental impact. Nearly 8 in 10 respondents indicate sustainability is important to them.” They went on to talk about this large group of consumers whose shopping habits are fueled by brand mission and if they are actually practicing sustainability. For this reason it would not be a bad idea to create a food brand that is very vocal about sustainability practices and target a more “green”-focused audience. I plan to make my own brand for this project so that’s something to keep in mind.
One of the first things to think about is what container is the food going to be held in? It needs to be well sealed and able to be microwaved. I came across a packaging by Inline Plastics that is for hot food application and can be microwaved. It’s a clear polypropylene that is reusable and dishwasher safe. It has a lid and a seal that is tamper evident. This could be an interesting option, since it cuts out the idea of single waste plastic, but do people really want to keep buying the same container over and over? Another thing to think about is if a sticker was placed over the container with product information, you’d have to be able to easily remove it to put the container in the dishwasher and reuse it.
While researching, I also came across another material made of Kraft material that is compostable. The problem with this material though is the lid, is not secure enough for a product that lives on the shelf. However that material of the bowl is what is interesting to me and if I could figure out a lid situation, that would be ideal. A plus of the material is I see it has printing on the side which means that the material can be decorated with the brand. The rectangle box is most suitable I believe because of the previously talked about shelving concerns.
Another example of a sustainable packaging is this compostable, microwable, eco friendly, made from plants material made by GoodToGo. Here is the product description and mission statement: "Our GoodToGo™ Microwavable food containers are compostable, super durable and designed to take the heat, all while reducing your reliance on fossil fuels! Made from 97% plant-based materials and no chemicals of concern, your customers can heat up their grub in peace knowing there's nothing nasty leaching into it!" I think this specific material would be most ideal for the material, but would be even better if combined with the food safe pull tab idea from Inline Plastics. This would allow for the food within the boxes to be secure and not at risk from spilling out and being tampered with.
The last thing to think about, I believe is how the information will be displayed on the box, and with that I think compostable stickers would be the best choice so the consumer doesn't have to worry about removing them. Here is an example of a company called, Pure Labels, who creates compostable stickers. I would plan for the stickers to be custom and dis cut to fit whatever shape the container needs.