Last Updated on June 25, 2023 by Packoi Team
Apart from protecting the food product, you have to provide the right information so customers can make informed buying decisions. Failure to comply with all the rules can destroy your brand’s image.
But this doesn’t mean your food packaging designs should be boring. You can be compliant while innovative with your packaging designs.
In this article, you’ll discover innovative food packaging examples that’ll inspire you to create packaging designs for your food products.
5 Benefits of an Innovative Food Packaging Design
Before we go to the examples of innovative food packaging design, let’s talk about why you need to do it in the first place.
You should know by now that product packaging is an important part of your sales and marketing efforts. Although your product is the real star, packaging designs play a huge role in convincing customers to choose you over your competitors.
The same is true for food packaging. Whether you sell cookies or snacks or meat products, your packaging will help you stand above the other items in the store.
In the competitive food industry, a well-designed product box isn’t enough. You need to be innovative so people will keep an eye out for your brand.
Here are the 5 other benefits of coming up with an innovative design for your food product box.
It Shows Your Genius
Innovative ideas don’t just come to anyone. It takes a sharp and imaginative mind to have them. You need to be a visionary to think of a food packaging design that other businesses haven’t thought of using before.
You have to be a genius to come up with such a design.
Fortunately, this is something that you can learn to do. You just need to develop a deep understanding of your food product and how your customers consume it. These will give you clues to create innovative food packaging.
Once you succeed, your customers will know that you’re a genius when it comes to your product.
It Reflects Courage
Innovation means introducing something new. So when you invest in an innovative idea, that means nobody has done it before and you’re not afraid to go against the norm.
It takes courage to do that. The risk involved can affect your business. If you’re willing to take a chance, that shows confidence and bravery.
When your customers see that you’re courageous enough to launch a food packaging design that’s different from the rest, you’ll get their respect. If you should them that you’re willing to take risks with your food packaging, that’s proof to them that you don’t take things lightly.
It Makes You Memorable
What happens when you encounter something for the first time? That incident stays on your mind. It leaves an impact because the novelty of it is something that you’ve never seen before.
That’s the power of innovative packaging designs. It stands out because these come from novel ideas that haven’t been tried before. That makes your food packaging design unique and memorable.
Even if your food packaging is amidst other products, the customer’s attention will go to yours. They might not need to buy your product now. But since your packaging left an impression on them, they’ll think of buying from your brand.
It Builds Anticipation
Another benefit of having innovative food product boxes is it’s influential enough to make your customers feel excited about your brand.
Think about it. If you’re willing to take risks and be innovative with your food packaging design, they can expect incredible things from your brand in the future.
They know that you’ll always be one step ahead when it comes to your products. Your innovative ideas will give them incredible products and packaging designs.
That’s something that they can look forward to with anticipation.
It Develops Trust
What makes customers trust a brand or product? It’s confidence. It gives your target market a sense of security that whatever your brand promises will be delivered to them.
By providing an innovative food packaging design, people will feel the confidence that you have when it comes to your products. It shows how much you understand it and how it allows you to deviate from the norm.
Through your food packaging, you can build a brand identity that people can trust. Once you’ve established that trust, getting them to be loyal to you is easy.
10 Powerful Examples of Creative Food Packaging Design
Many food packaging designs can inspire you to create product boxes for your business. But a creative packaging design isn’t enough. You want it to be innovative and unique from what other people have been used to seeing.
To help you develop your own, there are amazing examples of product packaging designs that have proven to be genius ideas in their own right.
Udder-Like Milk Bottle
This is a design by Muhammet Uzuntas. It’s a clever milk packaging design that looks like the udders that the product came from. The idea is to use the udder as the bottom of the bottle to steady it – and remind customers where the milk came from.
The bottle has a curved shape that’s easy to grip and uses neutral colors that represents the color of milk perfectly.
Your food packaging can follow this idea by focusing on the very source of your product. Use the main ingredient of your product as the design element of your box.
Paper Noodle Packaging
This packaging design was developed by Emily Enrica, an Australian student who called it the Paper Noodle. The idea behind this food packaging is to create completely biodegradable packaging that’s 100% makes of paper pulp. It’s not just biodegradable and recyclable, it’s also FDA-tested and microwavable.
The inspiration you can get from this food packaging is sustainability and functionality. This packaging seems to be focused on being eco-friendly but it’s very functional and convenient to use. This is a great example of how you can balance your brand’s advocacies, satisfying customer needs, and meeting industry standards.
Potato Peel Packaging
This creative packaging design is from the collaborative efforts of Paolo Stefano Gentile, Pietro Gaeli, and Simone Caronni. The three designers realized how much potato peel is discarded when creating fries – so they decided to do something about it.
They created a way to soften and dry potato peels so they can be processed into cone-shaped packaging. After consuming the fries, the peel packaging is compostable so it doesn’t leave any waste behind.
This is a great inspiration for your food packaging if you want it to be completely biodegradable. Find a way to reuse the waste from processing your food products.
Trebodur Packaging
The food packaging created by Tillmann Schrempf and Niko Stoll is similar to the concept of potato peel. They created an organic material called Trebodur. It’s made from BSG or brewer’s spent grain. The designers found a natural binder in the grains so it could be transformed into a packaging material.
This creative packaging design can inspire you to look at the qualities of your food waste. See how it can be transformed into something that you can use as packaging. Since it’s from the food that you process, it can be used as compost later on.
Plantable Packaging
This is a packaging design project of Pat Mangulabnan. The main food packaging material is called PInyapel, a paper made from pineapple leaves. Seeds are chosen carefully and embedded in the paper before it’s transformed into a product box.
The consumer can finish eating the product and then plant the packaging and watch it grow.
This is a great idea if you want to use a sustainable material for your food packaging. This works best if your product is fruit-based – since Pinyapel comes from pineapples.
Dissolvable Packaging
The food packaging idea of Holly Grounds isn’t a new concept. But the details of the packaging are innovative.
This packaging design is for instant ramen. Instead of the usual plastic packaging, the product uses an edible and water-soluble material that’s made of gelatin. It dissolves in hot water. This packaging is flavored so when it dissolves, it gives taste to the broth of the ramen.
Use this as inspiration for 100% edible packaging. Admittedly, it might only apply to certain food products.
Colorful Wraps
Shiekh Branding is responsible for this food packaging design. It was for Super Foul, an Egyptian restaurant that wishes to attract the younger market. The food packaging and wraps are all colorful with artistic drawings.
The concept isn’t new but the idea can be used to inspire an innovative idea about your food packaging design. Be radical with your design choices so you can attract the attention of the specific market that you want to cater to.
Pizza Time
There have been many food packaging designs for pizza boxes. But this design by Man Wai Wong is unique because it focuses on the time when the pizza was sent out. The top lid of the box looks like a pizza but the slice design changes to represent different times in 12 hours. It was perfect for the restaurant because it opened 24/7. The flap of the box even shows a humorous reason why the customer is ordering at that particular time of the day. There’s one reason for an AM order and a PM one.
Use this idea if you want to make your food product box humorous. It’s creative, well-thought-out, and incredibly clever.
Interactive Cereal Packaging
This great example of what creativity, ingenuity, and functionality look like in food packaging. Shreya Pujari created a new packaging design for the multipack product of Kellogg’s cereals. Instead of the usually colorful boxes, the packaging looks like a bowl. Each of the variants makes up a portion of the bowl. The consumer can simply remove the one they want to eat – like a cake slice.
But that’s not all. This packaging also has a disc on top so the consumer can “Spin-the-wheel” to pick the cereal they’ll eat. The design of each variant also has fun facts about it.
If you want to make your food packaging interactive, this is a great example to get inspiration from.
Farmer Sackcloths
This food packaging is a project of Backbone Branding. This type of packaging shows no evidence of the actual product – but it does represent the journey that the product goes through to get to the consumer. The product here is rice. Instead of putting references to the actual product, the packaging designer opted to pay homage to the farmers that worked hard in the rice fields.
This idea can be applied to all types of food products. Think about the actual source of the product. Then make the design revolve around it.
5 Food Packaging Must-Haves
A creative package design is impressive. But no matter how visually attractive it is, it has to follow specific rules to be an effective packaging for food.
To ensure that you’re making the right choices with your food packaging, here are 5 must-haves that you should incorporate into the design.
It Must Be Appetizing
First of all, the food packaging design should contribute to making the product look appetizing. That’s the true essence of visually appealing food packaging.
It should attract attention, not just because it’s beautiful, but because it makes the customer feel hungry. Your design should represent the different flavors of the product. Or it should at least ensure that the product is clean – making it safe for consumption.
It Must Be Informative
There’s no shortcut for this rule. Every food packaging should provide adequate information about the product.
Give customers details about the product so they can decide for themselves if it’s safe for them to consume. Some people have allergies or dietary restrictions. Others are very particular about their nutrition and calorie intake.
Your package design should provide answers to the concerns of the consumers.
It Must Adhere to Industry Standards
When it comes to the information provided in food packaging designs, make sure they all comply with the food industry standards. The FDA and other regulatory bodies have rules that you have to comply with.
It’ll be in the best interest of everyone if you comply and put the right information in your food package design. Do your research so you won’t end up making a mistake in your packaging.
It Must Be Functional
All types of packaging are meant to improve the experience of the customer as they use the product. That means the food packaging design should be functional.
For instance, the packaging for pistachios should have a compartment that people can use to put empty shells in. This will make it easier for people to enjoy the food without worrying about the mess.
Think about how the customers eat or drink the food. Then find a way to make the packaging improve that experience.
It Must Be Sustainable
If you notice, a lot of the innovative food packaging mentioned earlier has eco-friendly qualities. That’s because we still have to solve a mountain of packaging and plastic waste.
To help solve that, consider using recycled materials for your product boxes. Or you can make them compostable or plantable.
Creating durable packaging that can be reused is also another way to create sustainable packaging.
Do You Have Creative Food Packaging Ideas? Packoi Printing Can Brainstorm with You.
Although there are many ways to package food, there are still undiscovered possibilities that you can look into. Keep an open mind because the next innovative food packaging design may be discovered by your brand.
This is easier to do if you partner with the right packaging supplier.
Packoi Printing has extensive experience and expertise when it comes to product packaging designs. We can help brainstorm with you to create unique food product boxes for your brand.
Give us a call so we can start throwing ideas around. We’ll get back to you with a fair quote in no time.
