In an age when just about every foodservice company is entering the takeout market, packaging and the image it extends to consumers is becoming increasingly important. One woman knows this more than anyone else because she has made it her career. JoAnn Hines, better known as The Packaging Diva, is the only woman on the list of the 50 Most Influential Packaging Leaders in the 20th Century and has spoken at numerous venues, including the White House. She gives QSR her thoughts on some of the packaging industry’s biggest issues and a forecast of what’s to come.
Moms are busier than ever these days. What types of packaging have you seen lately that successfully caters to them? It’s not a specific package but definitely the concepts around having everything together in one complete package—whether it’s having a main dish like supper and complementary foodservice products or having the complete meal to go so you can just pop it in the microwave or oven.
Those are the areas that are the most important right now because moms and women are particularly busy, so the easier and more convenient you can make it for them, the better it’s going to be in terms of their satisfaction, knowing that they’re not going to have to really do a lot or make a decision.
What kind of challenges are there in packaging healthy, fresh food? There’s a tremendous amount of growth in that market. New categories developed. It wasn’t but a few years ago you couldn’t get presliced apple slices because the technology wasn’t there.
Talking about innovation, you could have the products that come from the foodservice industry have some sort of timer or label that changes that tells the consumer this is good for such an amount of time. Once it’s expired, it should turn brown or have an X on it or maybe a skull and crossbones. If there could be some sort of innovation incorporated into that product packaging that would tell the consumer if it’s still good to consume, or how many days are left before it has to be used. It could be a myriad of different things that could be used.