Understanding Packaging Preferences of Today’s Consumers
The food and beverage industry has been impacted in a variety of ways as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, not least by shifts in consumer preferences. Management consulting firm McKinsey and Company recently set out to learn specifically what’s important to consumers when it comes to food and beverage packaging.
According to McKinsey’s survey results, the COVID-19 situation has made consumers more sensitive to the importance of hygiene/food safety in packaging materials. Across the ten countries sampled (spanning North and South America to Europe and Asia), hygiene/food safety came out on top with the highest number of respondents indicating its importance in product packaging as very strong or extremely.1 The second most highly cited factor in all countries was shelf life.2
In the U.S., the next most cited factors in product packaging after hygiene/food safety (at 77%) and shelf life (at 67%) were ease of use (61%), and durability and label information (tied at 59%).3 Environmental impact of the product packaging came in last (at 43%), surprising researchers.4 In fact, environmental impact ranked in the bottom two for eight of the ten countries surveyed, indicating the greater importance to consumers of more immediate, practical concerns.5