Grab'N'Go Culture: Uncovering Common Threads in Foodservice Packaging

With so many innovations taking place in packaging these days, we here at Packaging Strategies are never lacking for news to share with our audience. However, sometimes it’s nice to step back from the day-to-day reporting and get a bird’s eye view of one segment of the industry.

One of my favorite sectors is foodservice packaging. There’s something joyful about ordering delicious food from one of your favorite establishments and taking it home, so I decided to focus this month on what consulting groups are saying about the foodservice packaging market and, specifically, the sustainable foodservice packaging market.

Market Research Forecast (MRF) recently published Sustainable Food Service Packaging Market Insights, to 2032. MRF pegged the global Sustainable Food Service Packaging Market size at $36.4 billion in 2023 and projects it will reach $49.2 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.4% during the forecast period.

Not surprisingly, some of the key players profiled in the MRF study are companies that we report on routinely, including Amcor Plc, Mondi Group, Sealed Air Corporation, Tetra Pak International, Huhtamaki Oyj, Smurfit Kappa Group, Sonoco Products Company, Ardagh Group, Ball Corporation, and Crown Holdings Inc.

“The sustainability food service packaging relates to the use of environmentally friendly PFP materials that are in contrast to conventional disposable ones,” MRF said in a press release. “These are the fully compostable/biodegradable items that can be made from plant materials such as bagasse, bamboo or plant fibers. Examples include eatable packaging, reusable plastics, and reusable containers. Some of them include their easiness of disintegrating naturally, their environmental friendliness and the possibility of being recycled in a closed-loop system. Uses extend to carry home containers, cups, eating utensils and food wraps for restaurants, cafeterias, and catering services.”

It’s refreshing to learn that big-time consulting firms essentially are looking at many of the same things that we at Packaging Strategies report on day-in and day-out — as refreshing, say, as the grilled chicken curry wrap with mixed greens and golden raisins that I frequently order from one of my favorite joints here in town.