Consumer perception and acceptance of edible packaging for various food products

Abstract

Excessive use of single‐use plastic packaging presents an imminent threat to the environment. One of the emerging solutions is using edible food packaging. However, there is lack of consumer information toward edible packaging. This study evaluated consumer attitude, acceptability, and purchase intent of three types of edible food packaging: muffin liner, cranberry pomace fruit leather wrap, and powdered drink sachet. One hundred consumers who frequently consumed muffins, strawberry fruit leather, and powdered lemonade were selected from metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon to participate in the study. The panelists were presented with the edible films and the food products with the edible packaging, information card highlighting the environmental‐friendly edible package, and were prompted with describing the sensory attributes, purchase intent, and qualities regarding the edible packaging with and without food. Overall, panelists liked the three foods with the edible packaging giving overall liking scores of 7.48, 8.06, and 7.48 for the muffin liners, edible fruit leather wraps, and powdered drink sachets, respectively, based on a 9‐point hedonic scale where 1 = dislike extremely and 9 = like extremely. When asked about hypothetical purchase intent, 64%–68% of panelists positively reacted to purchase intent and would buy all three types of edible packaging products. Based on the positive reaction from panelists, edible packaging maybe a possible solution to reducing single‐use plastic packaging in the food industry. This study can be the catalyst for further investigation of the efficacy of different applications of edible food packaging as well as consumer perceptions of eating their packaging.Practical ApplicationEdible food packaging is an emerging solution for reducing single‐use plastic waste. This study investigated consumer attitude, acceptability, and purchase intent of edible food packaging for three food packaging applications, including edible muffin liner, fruit leather wrap, and powdered drink sachet. This study demonstrated that consumers strongly agree that edible packaging would serve as an environmentally sustainable solution to single‐use plastics, and are willing to spend more to purchase these sustainable alternatives. This study provides new information toward the future development of edible packaging and consumer perceptions of eating their packaging.