As regards Italian consumers, a green packaging more and more frequently defines the purchase choice of food and beverage.
Despite a difficult economic climate with a rapidly rising inflation rate and skyrocketing energy costs, in the last year 65% of Italian families put a product into their cart because its packaging was more sustainable as against other brands.
This is revealed in the latest update of FMCG Packaging Observatory compiled by Nomisma, presented last January at Marca 2023, the international private label show.
Another interesting point is that in the meantime 19% consumers ceased to buy a product because they considered its packaging not sustainable.
Sustainability: a driver to future choices
Eighty-eight percent Italians go for saving strategies that range from reducing waste to buying only special offer products to giving up superfluous products/services.
On this rather complicated background, sustainability still plays an important role to Italians. For thirty-five percent of Italian consumers, sustainability, combined with care for the environment is essential for future choices, while fifty-seven percent of them say they do not care.
To Italian consumers sustainability means choosing to buy a product taking in due consideration packaging, as a value and information vehicle, more and more important to ninety-two percent of respondents.
Features of packaging considered sustainable
A product with no over-packing (fifty-eight percent), fully recyclable (fifty-six percent) with a low content of plastics (forty-seven percent) shows the three sustainability characteristics mostly looked for in food packaging.
As regards materials, board for beverage is perceived mostly as sustainable (fifty-nine percent), while glass is considered the greenest material (sixty-seven percent).
In addition, labels play a very important role towards consumers, who over time grow more and more demanding and attentive. Information on the label that mostly influences food purchasing: origin of raw materials, packaging recycling methods, product manufacturing methods, environmental impact of the packaging, procurement and supply chain.
On the other hand, one Italian consumer out of five is not satisfied with information to evaluate sustainability of food and beverage and of food & beverage packaging as well.