The food packaging sector needs to continue innovating environmentally friendly products to meet market expectations, while more consumers are willing to pay more for their food because of it.
That's according to major Australian-owned food packaging supplier Confoil, who undertook internal research that showed 44 per cent of the people surveyed were extremely concerned about sustainability.
The same research also showed 45 per cent of respondents were willing to pay more for such packaging.
The Bayswater-based company, which commenced manufacturing food packaging predominantly on foil, had flagged a need to transition to a circular type material 25 years ago, which eventually led to the development of a new compostable paperboard tray introduced to the market.
But further developments in recent years were needed, including a recently added coating that was also compostable, recyclable and could withstand the rigours of the market was a critical step.
The company has now got to a point where it is offering their customers sustainable packaging options which are now ovenable and microwavable.
The business development manager for food packaging company Confoil Richard Fernandez said that over one-third of respondents in their research also said there was importance for end-of-line packaging - which incorporates the last operations performed before shipment - to be recyclable.
"They called out that [the packaging] had to be recyclable, compostable or minimal," he said.
"They also wanted a reduction in packaging overall as well."
On Tuesday, Mr Fernandez spoke at a forum run by the Australian Institute of Packaging on sustainable packaging design at the Foodpro conference in Melbourne.
He said many of his business customers reflected their own customers' views who expected reasonable packaging on the products taken off the supermarket.
"It was important that there was an end-of-life solution for these materials coming through," Mr Fernandez said.
Confoil's research also showed 22 per cent of respondents related sustainability to production and farming.
Another panellist at the forum was Gilad Sadan, who is the managing director of N.A.V.I. Co Global, a creative agency focused on sustainability and packaging.
He said fresh produce benefited more from sustainable packaging than fast-moving consumer goods, which led to a longer shelf life but the industry continued to be scrutinised the most compared to other industries over how it's presented.
That consumer sentiment had lead to "a pointy and polarising discussion".
"Throughout COVID, I decided to call myself 'The Packaging Hippie', and it seems to resonate with the people I deal with, simply because those two words are polarising," Mr Sadan said.
"Packaging has a sentiment of killing the Earth and choking turtles, while a hippy protects the Earth and hugs trees, so combining those together represents what I believe in, and represents the balance I think when we need to achieve when approaching packaging projects for the produce industry."
He also said COVID revolutionised the packaging industry somewhat, driving further innovation in packaging for those wanting better protection for their food, but new ideas came at a high cost.
"Especially these days, where costs keep going up, many will ask the question 'where does innovation sit?'," he said
"[They'll also ask] whether it is really the time to invest in innovation for what's coming or whether some companies feel it's better to put something on hold?"
Mr Sadan also warned that companies as a whole were beginning to have different interpretations of what sustainability.
He said this made it a buzzword which then would be used as a reason for increased shelf prices, when the product itself may not have any indications of sustainable.
