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Food safety and shelf life are priorities for packaging, say global consumers

Food safety and shelf life are the most important packaging characteristics that influence consumers’ purchasing decisions, according to research by the consultancy company McKinsey.

Perhaps more surprising is the finding, in the survey of 11,000 citizens, that environmental impact falls well down the priority list. This does not mean they necessarily care less about this issue, noted McKinsey, but instead, that consumers are focusing more on other packaging characteristics when making decisions.

Indeed, the share of respondents ranking environmental impact as “extremely” or “very important” has remained steady over time: 51% in 2025, 52% in 2023, and 51% in 2020. The cost-of-living crisis, inflation, and the Covid-19 pandemic have all played a part in ensuring that other factors are being more strongly prioritised.

The consultants wrote: “While environmental concerns continue to rank lower than several other factors for global consumers, a significant portion of consumers rank environmental impact as very important in their purchasing decisions, and there are segments of consumers across all countries who say they are willing to pay some premium for sustainable packaging.”

Consumers look for quality and value

The research includes responses from more than 11,000 consumers across four continents and 11 countries, 66% of global GDP, and 50% of the world’s population.

Consumers were also asked about their purchasing decisions generally: price and quality remain the top priorities (with price even more important when compared to previous years). Inflation and the cost-of-living crisis have played into this increased price sensitivity – especially in the UK, France, and Japan, where price is the top consideration for purchasing decisions. In most other countries, it is the “perception of quality” that ranks highest, according to the survey.

Of note, “brand” has become more important in more than half the countries surveyed and is ranked as the second most important purchasing factor in both India and China.

Environmental impact, as with packaging, is further down the priority list, ranking just above social impact when it comes to product purchasing decisions. Still, more than 39% of respondents globally ranked environmental impact as “extremely” or “very important” in their purchasing decisions, which is up from 20% in 2020.

European consumers generally view sustainability considerations as more important than other geographies do, though relative importance has declined since 2023, McKinsey noted.

European attitudes towards packaging are ‘complex’

In a breakdown of European results, the consultancy found that consumers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Sweden also place greater weight on food safety and shelf life than they do on environmental impact and aesthetics.

The dip in perceived importance of sustainability when it comes to packaging may appear modest, the experts noted, but “reinforce the broader story that environmental impact continues to lag behind other packaging characteristics”.

Sentiments towards sustainability remain “complex”, the consultants said, but some segments and demographics are willing to pay a premium for “greener” packaging. In particular, they are looking for recyclable (70% of Europeans) and reusable packaging (61%), closely followed by that made from recycled materials (60%). They are far less interested, it seems, in biobased options (41%) or lightweighting (51%).

However, food companies should be wary of regional differences – for example, compostability is really important among consumers in Italy, where there has been a considerable drive towards capture and treatment of this kind of packaging.