Custom food packaging options must satisfy two main functions: keeping the food safe inside and attracting customers to choose your products over your competitors’ offerings. As food packaging expert Debra Weiss points out, having better packaging than their competitors is one of the primary ways food manufacturers can drive sales.
Take a Two-Pronged Approach to Food Packaging
An eye-catching package – particularly one with glossy images of what customers will find inside, is the deciding factor for most shoppers. However, the custom food packaging options you choose must protect your products from contamination, vacuum-seal them against degradation from being exposed to air, and give them a long shelf life.
Failure in that area will mark your brand as low-quality, no matter how attractive the package’s design. Stale or spoiled food doesn’t only turn customers off. Neglecting to protect consumers from possible health issues from poor packaging can even trigger a lawsuit, often a death knell for food brands.
When It Comes to Food, Make Your Motto “Safety First”
Here are some ways to find custom packaging that is safe as well as attractive.
Follow the Science
For that reason, it pays to work with a researcher, as well as a label printer, when you’re first designing your products’ custom food packaging options. A little scientific expertise when you’re first launching your product line will pay off major dividends over time.
Consider Your Impact on the Environment
Sustainability and eco-friendliness, too, are important considerations for today’s consumers. Using biodegradable packaging that still protects your products adequately can help attract eco-conscious consumers. And, you’ll be helping to keep our environment clean for generations to come. Consider custom printed pouches as an option for packaging food, powders or liquids. Custom food pouches are now available in small quantities.
Make Them Sturdy
Food products, like all other consumer goods, need to hold up under the rigors of shipping. That means that the boxes or pallets you ship them in provide enough cushioning to protect them, whether they move to a neighboring town’s grocery store or halfway across the world on a ship.
Attract Customers with Eye-Catching Custom Labels for Food Packaging
After you find safe, durable packages for your food products, it’s time to turn those plain Janes into runway stars. With attractive custom labels for food packaging, you can have a design that attracts consumers to grab your products off the shelves.
Use an Experienced Design Professional
You’re a food manufacturer, not a designer. But you might have a concept in your head of how you want your packages to look. A professional designer can turn your idea into a gorgeous label that will entice customers to take a chance on your products instead of their usual choice.
Your printer will usually have a designer on staff to help bring your label idea to life with custom labels for food packaging that both reflect your brand and feed your customers’ cravings.
Incorporate Your Logo
Even if you’re a relative newcomer to the food industry, you need to establish a brand identity. If you don’t have a design team, your printer’s in-house design professional can help you create a logo that defines your brand and differentiates you from your competitors.
Color Is Critical
Nothing feeds the crave like colors. The right color scheme can activate consumers’ brains like nothing else. After all, would you buy your breakfast orange juice from a seller that didn’t include the color orange?
Let’s take a deeper dive into the relationship of color with consumer behavior. Each color has its advantages for specific foods.
For example, orange represents energy – a new day dawning. As such, it’s the perfect color to use on labeling for breakfast items, like orange juice or even your morning coffee. It’s no surprise that Sanka, a decaf coffee brand, packaged its coffee in bright orange. Even without the caffeine, the label itself jolts decaf drinkers’ brains into gear.
White, on the other hand, gives off a pure, simple vibe – perfect for milk or as a background for all-natural or organic foods. Use this quick chart to help you find the optimum colors for your custom labels for food packaging:
How Different Colors Affect Packaging
- Green: The quintessential color of nature and growing things, green is a must-have on salad greens packaging, tea boxes, or organic foods.
- Yellow: Of course, you’ll want to use sunny yellow on labels for lemonade and banana smoothies. But it’s also great for egg packaging and breakfast bars. Just like orange, it’s a great choice for anything breakfast-related.
- Red: Apples are probably the first thing that pops into your mind when you see the color red. But its high-energy power is also a fantastic choice for cinnamon candy, coffee, and energy drinks.
- Blue: The most popular color, blue’s calming aura helps build confidence in your product. Use pops of blue with orange (they’re complementary colors) to entice consumers to trust your breakfast products. And, of course, feature it on your blueberry pie label. Including the natural color of your foods on your custom stickers for food packaging is a must to catch your customers’ eyes.
- Pink: Pink’s soft energy is a superb choice for wines with floral notes or foods that attract a mostly female audience. Use it liberally on packaging for your chocolate-dipped strawberries or pastel petits fours packages.
- Purple: As the symbol for wealth, purple is an excellent option choice for custom stickers for food packaging for your gourmet food or beverage brand.
- Black: The symbol of boldness and strength, black is a perfect color for sports supplements or protein bars.
- Brown: This earthy color looks fantastic on labels on cereal boxes, jars for rustic stews, and of course, chocolate.
Custom Stickers for Food Packaging to Provide Required Information
Since the beginning of 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has put stricter labeling requirements into effect for a variety of food products. If you still have older packaging solutions in stock, custom stickers for food packaging might be an economical alternative to disposing of your old stock.
Simply create new labels that comply with the current FDA regulations, print them on custom stickers, and attach them to the old packaging on top of your previous nutrition and ingredient labels. Provided they have a similar appearance to the existing packaging, your products will look just as attractive as they did before.
When you’re ready to update your food packaging options, the knowledgeable team of printing professionals at Nova Custom Label Printing can help. To learn more, contact us by phone or email today.
