FDBusiness.com

For ethical-hungry consumers, ingredients are not enough to make food sustainable – packaging must be green, too.

Dubbed “greenwrapping”, the premium food sector is increasingly seeking to entice eco-friendly customers with their sustainable packaging.

Perhaps encouraging us that we should judge a book by its cover, the outside of a product is beginning to be just as important as what is inside, whether that is tuna, tea, peanut butter or popcorn.

In recent years tuna has acquired the title as a controversial catch, but now conservationists are keen to consider the can it is packed in. Metal cans are more resource intensive than plastic pouches are, and also consume more energy in transportation.

Consumers Want Green Packaging and Food

Now, Sea Fare Pacific is breaking conventions and packing their wild, sustainably caught sea food into BPA-free pouches that are not only environmentally friendly, but sleek too.

Popcorn bags may not seem problematic, but they are increasingly attracting scrutiny. PFOA lines many commercial microwave popcorn bags, which the FDA classed as a toxin. Other unwanted contents include plastics, Teflon and artificial butter substitutes. Quinn Popcorn plans to change the much-loved snack with their Kickstarter campaign.

The Quinn founders describe their mission on their website: “First, we tackled the bag. Gone are the chemical coatings (PFOA, PFCs, Poly, etc.). We even pulled out the susceptor (gray metal/plastic patch).”

What is left, they continued, is just paper. But not just any paper – it is both greaseproof and compostable.

Greenwrapping

Food isn’t the only thing enjoying the green treatment; organic tea can now be found in biodegradable filter pack in Numi packs, and Australian design company, The Creative Method, have created a wine bottle that is organic from lid to base – it includes wax, balsa wood, organic string, and even organic inks to create the images on the bottle.

Greenwrapping is just the start for organic food retailers, who have their eye on sustainability-conscious consumers. Research and consulting company EcoFocus found in a survey carried out last year that over two-thirds of those who shop for organic and natural foods regard choosing responsibly packaged foods as important. Whatever it is they are buying, they want it to be green.