Why are Food Manufacturers Moving Toward Clean Label Packaging?

Ingredient transparency through clean labels is a key trend in the food industry and remains one of the top priorities for consumers today.

Clean labels have helped consumers in understanding what they are consuming through a particular food item.

To get a better understanding, we’ll be discussing clean label packaging and the reason why food manufacturers are shifting toward this trend.

What is the clean label?

Clean label is the most accepted term used in the food industry for describing the ingredients of the products in a more eco-friendly and user-friendly manner.

For a consumer, the main reason behind preferring a clean label is the rising trend of eating healthy and knowing what they are eating.

Due to changing behavior of consumers toward product packaging, the focus of manufacturers has also shifted toward supplying product packaging with all the necessary information consumers want to check on the packaging. Consumers prefer product packaging that is simple to understand and products that are made without using any artificial ingredients.

Impact of Clean Label on the Brand Identity

Let’s understand through an example how having a clean label (or not having a clean label) can impact the identity of the brand.

The use of the term ‘ascorbic acid’ on the packaging of a food item may not be a familiar term for many consumers.

It is, therefore, preferred to have a simpler terminology for the same ingredient so that every user can understand it easily. This will help in increasing customers’ trust in the product and will increase brand loyalty for the consumer.

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Reasons Food Manufacturers are Shifting Toward Clean Label Trends

Clean label trends continue to be the most effective trends shaping the development of the product and food packaging sector. Consumers have started paying additional attention to the labels of the products, which is leading to high demand for clean labels.

Let’s understand the key trends that are helping to shape the clean label sector:

• Environment and Health Concerns

Consumer perceptions of clean labels are subjective but mainly focused on factors such as:

Simplicity: Consumers always look for such ingredients in household products that are simple, healthier, and natural ingredients. So as per the consumer preferences, manufacturers have also started mentioning ingredients that are known to the consumer and simple to understand with respect to their labeling for getting a better response from the consumers.

Transparency: Consumers want every brand to be completely transparent about its manufacturing process. They want to know the exact way and process being used by the manufacturers for making products. As per consumers, minimally processed products are seen as more natural and cleaner.

Traceability: Environmental and ethical consideration plays a key role in the consumer’s decision to purchase any food. Consumers want to know every possible information about the foods, such as whether the products have been from a sustainable source or not, whether the product has any unnatural ingredients, and many more. Such information plays a vital role in influencing the purchasing decision of the consumers.

The preference for the clean label is influencing consumer purchasing behavior. Now, consumers prefer products offering simple and clean labels with natural ingredients.

However, consumers are not ready to make any kind of compromise on the taste and visual appearance of the products. So, this has resulted in bigger problems for manufacturers in searching for such ingredients that can deliver the required flavors.

Plant-based ingredients are one of the best solutions for food manufacturers for providing the required flavor with clean labels.

· Changing Spending Habits of Consumers

Due to the rise of various e-commerce platforms, consumers have much more options for purchasing food compared to before. Big online stores such as Walmart and Amazon are shipping the required food products as per the consumer preference to their address.

This online marketplace is helping consumers to connect with food manufacturers and small vendors who are following the clean label trend.

So, it becomes much more important for every food manufacturer to adopt clean labeling on the product for remain in the market.

Industry Overview of Global Clean Label Ingredients Market

Today, the consumers are educated and capable enough of determining the possible effects of processed and unnatural foods, which is resulting in the high need for transparency in the ingredients.

Clean labels are the response of the food industry to the rising demands of the consumers for consumables that don’t have any questionable ingredients like aspartame, artificial dyes, caramel color, and brominated oils.

As per the BIS Research study, the global clean label ingredients market is expected to touch $32.08 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 8.65%.

The demand for product transparency is an opportunity for brands to emerge as trusted brands for consumers and get their position and image much stronger in the market.

Every consumer is looking to get detailed information about the product they are using, and the brands providing that transparency are more likely to have a stronger loyal consumer. Hence, brands offering full transparency in their products have better chances of gaining greater market shares compared to others.

Following are the factors fueling the growth of the clean label ingredients market:

• High demand from consumers for transparency of the nutritional labels
• More preference toward having organic food
• Lesser demand for artificial food and unnatural ingredients

Conclusion

Clean labeling and transparency go together and remain on the priority list of food manufacturers looking to strive in the competitive market. Consumers are no longer the same; they have become much more health-conscious and now look at every ingredient on the packaging of the product in a much more detailed manner.

To meet the demand of the consumers and make them loyal to their brands, clean labeling and transparency of the manufacturing process are the only solutions for the food manufacturers.