Most household packaging is connected to food.
The research project’s objective is to investigate the awareness of the problem, consumer assessments and consumer behaviour when dealing with plastic packaging in the food industry, as well as to measure consumer acceptance of more sustainable packaging solutions at the Point of Sale in stationary food retailing.
The realisation and implementation of sustainable packaging alternatives largely depends on consumer behaviour since their purchase decision plays an important role. It is unclear, however, what importance consumers attach to packaging when making sustainable purchasing decisions in food retailing. Does the type of packaging play a major role in (ecologically motivated) purchasing decisions, and is the consumer perhaps even willing to pay a surcharge or to accept a visual/haptic impairment for more environmentally friendly packaging?
Against this background, the role of packaging in (sustainably implied) purchasing decisions, awareness and knowledge about packaging and acceptance of more sustainable packaging alternatives for food are to be analysed with the help of a questionnaire and a real laboratory. Field experiments in the framework of the real laboratory additionally serve to evaluate packaging solutions newly developed by the Fraunhofer IVV, and to test for their practicability and consumer acceptance.
