Blog

Designing packaging for food products can be surprisingly complicated. It is essential to consider various factors such as:

• Food preservation
• Extending the shelf-life
• Using sustainable materials
• Protecting the food from damage
• Ensuring an attractive and appetizing appearance

With so many components to keep in mind, it is easy to see why it is necessary to design custom food packaging. No generic, off-the-shelf packaging is going to be able to serve all of these purposes for your unique products.

Custom food packaging ensures that your merchandise is sufficiently protected while also getting the word out about your brand.

Let's explore some of the ways that you can make your food packaging as impactful as possible.

Ensuring that Form and Function Meet

The goal of all good packaging design is to find the intersection between aesthetics, form, and function. This is especially critical when you are considering packaging materials. It is essential that all of these elements be balanced so that your customers are happy and your products can be transported without being damaged.

Accordingly, it is wise to weigh which materials are best for protecting the contents of the package while not forgetting how important it is to make your package appealing enough for people to choose it from the shelf.

Wise entrepreneurs also give due consideration to how eco-friendly their food packaging is. Consumers are increasingly savvy about selecting brands that take an environmentally friendly stance. Many packaging materials that are widely available today are exceptionally easy to recycle, making it possible to go green with virtually no extra effort or expense.

In fact, once you start doing your research, you'll quickly discover that you have numerous material options from which to choose. This is why it is imperative to evaluate each option within the context of your merchandise.

For instance, you'll want to consider questions such as which material will ensure that your food products retain maximum freshness and arrive at their destination undamaged? Are any of the available materials sustainable or biodegradable? Is it possible to create food packaging that could be reusable?

Don't forget that packaging for food items also has to provide nutritional and ingredient information. This means that it's important to make the packaging attractive as well as informative.

One way that entrepreneurs in the food industry choose packaging materials is by reflecting on the most marketable aspects of each of their products.

Accordingly, some of the aspects that you may consider at the beginning of the packaging design process might include:

• Which materials are best suited to your products?
• How can the packaging be configured to ensure that it protects the contents and looks appealing at the same time?
• How easy is the packaging to ship to retailers? Is there too much risk of damage?
• Will the packaging make it easy to store and stock the products?
• Is all of the information included on the packaging that customers will need to make an informed decision?
• How does the proposed packaging design compare to those of competitors?

Putting Health and Safety in the Forefront

As an entrepreneur in the food industry, you probably already have the health and safety of your products and your customers foremost in your mind. Still, it is important to be particularly mindful of these concepts when you are designing custom food packaging.

A few of the health- and safety-related considerations that probably need to be addressed include nutritional content, serving ideas, marketing information, health information, and ensuring that the packaging is convenient to open and use.

In fact, the manner in which your packaging communicates health and safety can make a huge contribution to its overall shelf appeal.

The more comprehensive the information that you provide on your packaging, the more likely customers are to select it. This is because you have made it easy for these customers to learn more about your products. The information you provide can encourage them to take a chance on a new product. It's similarly helpful to incorporate basic safety features into your product packaging to maintain the integrity of the contents.

One example of this is caps that pop up if the seal is damaged or has been tampered with. Other product packaging might feature a coating or seal to provide an extra layer of protection.

It's also essential to keep in mind that your packaging must accommodate the need for grocery and other retail stores to track and potentially recall products if this is ever necessary.

It may seem like too many things to consider, but remember that the better designed your packaging is, the less risk there is of wastage or spoilage over the long run.

Any measures that you can put in place that are aimed at ensuring quality control while avoiding contamination and spoilage will pay dividends to your brand. You might even enjoy some nice bonuses if you can find a way to display your extra safety measures somewhere on the packaging.

Customers will appreciate the peace of mind that they receive from knowing that you've gone the extra mile to look out for them.

Promising Product Integrity

Consumers tend to offer their loyalty to brands that they trust. It's why they keep choosing the same products from the same company time and again.

If you are a relatively new entrant in the industry, then it can be hard to gain that trust from consumers. In fact, people tend to be a bit on the wary side when they are considering a new product, especially when they are shopping online.

One of the most powerful things you can do to begin establishing trust is to do your utmost to maintain and protect your products' integrity.

Accomplishing this can be as simple as adding images to your packaging that is as close and natural to the actual contents as possible.

Of course, it's normal to want to use the best-looking images available, but if there is a wide gap between the photo on the packaging and the real thing, people are probably going to get irritated.

In addition to the quality of the image, it is essential to consider the size of the products as they are depicted on the packaging. Make the images too large or too small, and people may see this as misleading.

Promising product integrity is one of the trickiest things to do with food packaging. Accordingly, it may take some time and experimentation to strike just the right balance. All of that time and effort will pay off as you won't be fostering false expectations that are likely to provoke an angry response.

Keep It Clear and Simple

How do you feel when you see your favorite food on a plate? Merely the sight of a beloved food item may be enough to make you hungry.

That's because food is a surprisingly visual experience. This means that it is imperative that your custom food packaging the carefully and thoughtfully matched to your products.

New entrepreneurs frequently are tempted to create packaging that has a wealth of design elements and a ton of stuff going on. Ultimately, this approach can backfire as it detracts attention from the product.

It generally makes more sense to go with a design that is clear and simple. That includes ensuring that you select fonts that are clear and legible, and it may even mean opting for fewer colors.

Before designing your custom food packaging, spend some time reflecting on your brand and what it stands for. How can these elements be incorporated into your packaging?

Basically, you want customers instantly to grasp what your product is and what it can do for them. This helps to avoid building false expectations or creating confusion.

Maximizing Shelf Impact

What, exactly, is shelf impact? It basically incorporates many of the considerations that were discussed above, but it can involve additional considerations.

The goal of maximizing shelf impact is to get customers to pay attention to your products. That means that the packaging has to stand out from the competition.

Not all elements of shelf impact are always within your control. Individual retailers will hold their unique philosophies as far as whether or not complementary products are placed together, or they may choose to create unique displays that are designed to be eye-catching for the customer.

This is why it's critical for you to strip away any extraneous design or informational elements from your packaging. Make everything beautiful, simple, and to the point. By doing so, you will be miles ahead of the competition.

Design Support from Mid-Atlantic Packaging

Are you ready to take the next step toward designing custom food packaging? If so, get a custom packaging quote from Mid-Atlantic Packaging. We provide the support you need at all stages of the design process.