Sustainable Packaging & Design Practices for D2C Food Packaging

Customers prefer choosing brands with sustainable practices, as it helps them reduce their carbon footprint as well. But walking down the path of eco-safe packaging does not mean you leave elegance and aesthetics behind. Blending visuals and sustainability in food packaging can boost your brand’s visibility and drive better sales. Read this blog to learn six ways you can be the next sustainable food brand with charming and premium designs.

Pack Your Food in Eco-Safe Packaging

The first rule of choosing to stay on the sustainability goal is to choose eco-safe packaging. With the sustainable food packaging trends emerging, food brands must keep up to stay relevant in the market. You can use different types of biodegradable and recycled packaging materials for your food products. Let’s have a look at the different materials you can choose for different baked goods or other types of food items:

• Aluminum Foil

Aluminum foil is one of the most used packaging materials when it comes to food products. Most fast-food chains use this foil to wrap their burgers, sandwiches, and even fries. You can use aluminum bags to pack products like coffee and tea leaves to keep their aroma and taste fresh.

• Kraft Packaging

Kraft paper and boxes are used to pack cookies, cupcakes, macarons, pastries, and fast food items like pizza, burgers, shawarma, etc., with customizations, you can make your brown Kraft packaging as versatile and elegant as possible.

• Cardboard Packaging

Most brands use cardboard boxes when packing different food items because they are eco-friendly and lightweight. When you opt for custom packaging, you get to decide the style of box you need for your products. It means if you choose tuck boxes, you can save on storage space as they can be stored flat.

Replace Plastic with Rigid Boxes for PR or Subscription Boxes

Influencer marketing is all the rage, and brands rely on it heavily to promote their new products. So, if you are also thinking of going down that line, or you have your monthly or quarterly subscription boxes, go for rigid packaging.

With personalized rigid packaging, you can leave a lasting impression on your customers and boost visibility. These boxes also offer a memorable unboxing experience and come in various styles. You can choose magnetic closure boxes, slider boxes, drawer boxes, open-door boxes, and hinged-lid boxes to pack your food items.

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Choose Plant Based Dyes for Printing

Using plant-based dyes will give your packaging a sustainable look to drive more sales and attract customers. Customers are more aware of the negative impact of petroleum-based dyes, and it may become the reason they do not choose your product. To ensure that your packaging is being picked up in the supermarkets and online, use soy ink for printing. And don’t worry, because this eco-safe ink offers vivid and charming visuals as well. Your packaging won’t be dull and bland if you choose plant-based dyes instead of petroleum.

Use Minimalist Designs on Your Food Boxes

They say bold always stands out, but in design, absolutes don’t work. Your packaging can still be the talk of the town even if it only has your brand’s logo and product name on it. Do you know how? With the power of minimalist designs.

While there are different types and techniques for the designs brands use on their packaging, choosing minimalist designs will help you achieve the sustainability goal. Minimalism works on the principle of less is more, which indicates that you can still make your package look highly attractive with little to no design.

Carefully Choose Color Pallets to Attract Customers

Designing your packaging boxes must serve a bigger purpose than just shelf appeal. You can create a unique and robust brand identity with these colors on your boxes. One of the ways of choosing colors for your food packaging is to keep your brand’s logo in mind. You can also look at the psychology behind every color and then finalize which colors will be used on the boxes.

Pastels like lilac, powder blue, ice blue, sage green, lime yellow, and champagne pink give a soothing effect. Whereas, bold colors like red, orange, blue, green, and yellow give an energetic feel. Carefully choose the colors as they can also reflect on your brand’s persona in the market.

Choose Aesthetic Finishes to Boost Shelf Visibility

Use premium packaging finishes to make your packaging boxes more visually appealing and enticing. There are different finishes that offer a fresh look and help brands achieve sustainability. Embossing and debossing are two finishes that you can use on your food boxes. Embossing gives a 3d appeal to the visuals by raising the texture, while debossing gives a depressed text effect.

Aqueous coating is another eco-safe packaging finish to use on your packaging. Aqueous finish uses an eco-friendly solution that offers a shiny and protective layer around the packaging boxes. When light falls on the boxes with this finish,it scatters, offering a beautiful shine. Make your packaging visuals speak volumes while keeping the sustainability goals in mind.

Be a Sustainable Brand Through and Through!

Gone are the days when sustainability was an emerging trend and not the need of the hour. Today, if you have to stay relevant as a business and avoid legal sanctions, you must switch to eco-safe packaging. Food brands, regardless of the type of food they are selling, can make the switch easily and adapt to these changes for their success. You can customize the sustainable packaging to boost visibility and stand apart from the competition in the market.