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Exploring Consumers’ Understanding and Perception of Sustainable Food Packaging in the UK

There is a growing emphasis on sustainability; however, not all food packaging fits this remit and consumer knowledge is typically lacking. This paper investigates UK consumers’ understanding, perception and preferences relating to sustainable food packaging and the impact that adding information to...

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Autores principales: Norton, Victoria, Waters, Carys, Oloyede, Omobolanle O., Lignou, Stella
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9657940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36360036
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11213424
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author Norton, Victoria
Waters, Carys
Oloyede, Omobolanle O.
Lignou, Stella
author_facet Norton, Victoria
Waters, Carys
Oloyede, Omobolanle O.
Lignou, Stella
author_sort Norton, Victoria
collection PubMed
description There is a growing emphasis on sustainability; however, not all food packaging fits this remit and consumer knowledge is typically lacking. This paper investigates UK consumers’ understanding, perception and preferences relating to sustainable food packaging and the impact that adding information to this packaging has on consumers’ behaviour. Consumers (n = 405) completed an online survey covering the following sections: (1) sustainability habits and knowledge; (2) utilising images to understand the role of labelling; and (3) determining key sustainable packaging attributes. Consumers regularly recycle plastic, cardboard, metal, paper, and glass, as well as showing willingness towards recycling; however, they lack knowledge of the correct recycling procedures. Labelling was successful in changing consumer behaviour and encouraging more sustainable choices. Consumers identified key sustainable packaging attributes as biodegradability, disposal methods, renewable sources, recyclability, no excess packaging, and product quality. The main themes from this survey relate to consumers typically being confused about recycling and often lacking knowledge about sustainable materials. More targeted education is needed to help consumers, coupled with additional support from companies and governments, to ensure consumers can make sustainable choices.
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spelling pubmed-96579402022-11-15 Exploring Consumers’ Understanding and Perception of Sustainable Food Packaging in the UK Norton, Victoria Waters, Carys Oloyede, Omobolanle O. Lignou, Stella Foods Article There is a growing emphasis on sustainability; however, not all food packaging fits this remit and consumer knowledge is typically lacking. This paper investigates UK consumers’ understanding, perception and preferences relating to sustainable food packaging and the impact that adding information to this packaging has on consumers’ behaviour. Consumers (n = 405) completed an online survey covering the following sections: (1) sustainability habits and knowledge; (2) utilising images to understand the role of labelling; and (3) determining key sustainable packaging attributes. Consumers regularly recycle plastic, cardboard, metal, paper, and glass, as well as showing willingness towards recycling; however, they lack knowledge of the correct recycling procedures. Labelling was successful in changing consumer behaviour and encouraging more sustainable choices. Consumers identified key sustainable packaging attributes as biodegradability, disposal methods, renewable sources, recyclability, no excess packaging, and product quality. The main themes from this survey relate to consumers typically being confused about recycling and often lacking knowledge about sustainable materials. More targeted education is needed to help consumers, coupled with additional support from companies and governments, to ensure consumers can make sustainable choices. MDPI 2022-10-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9657940/ /pubmed/36360036 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11213424 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Norton, Victoria
Waters, Carys
Oloyede, Omobolanle O.
Lignou, Stella
Exploring Consumers’ Understanding and Perception of Sustainable Food Packaging in the UK
title Exploring Consumers’ Understanding and Perception of Sustainable Food Packaging in the UK
title_full Exploring Consumers’ Understanding and Perception of Sustainable Food Packaging in the UK
title_fullStr Exploring Consumers’ Understanding and Perception of Sustainable Food Packaging in the UK
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Consumers’ Understanding and Perception of Sustainable Food Packaging in the UK
title_short Exploring Consumers’ Understanding and Perception of Sustainable Food Packaging in the UK
title_sort exploring consumers’ understanding and perception of sustainable food packaging in the uk
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9657940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36360036
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11213424
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