Exploring Green Food Packaging Design (1)

Green food refers to the pollution-free, safe, high-quality, nutritious foods that are produced and processed according to the principle of sustainable development, and that are certified by a specific organization and approved to use green food labels. It is different from other commodities because of its special concept. Its packaging design should reflect its unique quality and cultural characteristics. There is a wide range of green food products, including agricultural and forestry and processed products, livestock and poultry products, aquatic products, beverages and other types. Green food as a special commodity, its packaging design should have special requirements.

Packaging is the final procedure for converting a product into a product and selling it. Its ultimate goal is to influence the concept and behavior of consumers, establish a brand image, and win a marketing strategy. Green food packaging is responsible for the information communication and promotion of green food products. It is one of the most direct expressions of green food brand image. At the same time, it is also an art combining the psychological and physiological needs of products and consumers. This article will briefly summarize and discuss green food packaging design from the perspective of design requirements, design elements and design procedures.

Design requirements

1. Rigor

The constant updating and progress of modern packaging structure, new materials, visual communication, etc., require designers to come up with rigorous and scientific design solutions, and the application of packaging materials and packaging structures must be scientific and reasonable. According to the requirements for packaging in the "General Guidelines for Green Food Packaging" (hereinafter referred to as the "Code"), for example, the surface of green food packaging shall not be coated with wax or oil; moisture-proof materials such as plastics shall not be allowed to be applied; metal packaging and glass products shall not be used. Sealing materials and internal coatings that cause harm to the human body and the environment; products such as expanded polystyrene and polyurethane are not allowed to be used in plastic products; water-soluble inks must be used for markings on cartons; oil-soluble inks must not be used; external packaging should have express materials Instructions for use and reuse, recycling instructions and green food signs, printing ink or label adhesives for external packaging should be non-toxic and harmless, and should not be directly exposed to food. These strict requirements directly stipulate the problems that are noticed in the design of green food packaging. In the selection of packaging materials and post-printing process, strict reference should be made to the requirements of the Guidelines. Do not use poor quality and toxic and hazardous materials due to cost considerations.

The shape structure is very important. Reasonable shape structure can make the package play a role in transportation and sales. Many packaging products look gorgeous, but the actual packaging does not meet the packaging design.

The rigorous and reasonable layout of text and graphics is also the focus of green food packaging design. The trademark sign system in the "China Green Food Trademark Mark Design and Use Specification Manual" (hereinafter referred to as the "Handbook") is the use of the specification mark on the packaging. The green food logos, characters, and product numbers of the logos used and the green food logo series that constitute the whole logo shall be designed strictly in accordance with the specifications and appear in the prominent position of the product packaging (tags), usually at the top. If the color design of the original package and the green label series are too conflicting, you can select the prominent position to print on the label.

2. Environmental protection

Implementing green packaging is an international packaging trend. Developed countries have determined that packaging should comply with the “4R+1D” principle, namely low consumption, development of new green materials, reuse, recycling and degradability. For example, Japan's Takasaki Paper Co., Ltd. uses fruit pomace discarded from the food industry to produce pomace paper. The method is simple, the grains in the pomace are removed, and they are pulverized into pulp, and can be made by adding an appropriate amount of wood fiber. Easy to use after decomposition, can be burned or compost, can also be recycled paper, not easy to pollute the environment. The carrot paper developed in the United Kingdom uses carrots as a base material, adding appropriate thickeners, plasticizers, and water repellents, and using the natural color of carrots, it can be used as a cheap, edible color vegetable paper. According to the Guidelines, the selection of materials in green food packaging design should follow the following principles:

(1) Reduced, thin, easy to separate, high-performance packaging materials.

(2) Recyclable and renewable packaging materials.

(3) Degradable packaging materials.

The use of natural ecological energy for the development of natural packaging materials and the use of paper packaging is also strongly promoted.

3. Aesthetic

Bright, healthy and lively packaging style can give people a beautiful enjoyment. A considerable part of the design of green food packaging has long been lack of creativity, hard and rigid. Even some products are directly packaged in poor quality snakeskin bags and exported to some countries in Europe and Japan, seriously affecting the image of green food. The spiritual slogan of green food is "from an excellent ecological environment, bringing a strong vitality." From an aesthetic point of view, green food packaging as the last procedure to be sold, presented in front of people should be in line with the spiritual slogan of green food.

4. Practicality

Can be discussed from three aspects, one is to protect the performance design, including moisture, mold, tamper, shock, leakage, shatterproof, anti-extrusion and so on. The second is to facilitate the design of the performance, including convenience for the display and sales of the store, for the convenience of customers to carry, use, etc. The third is to promote the performance design, that is, without the introduction or demonstration of sales staff, the customer can only understand the product through the “self-introduction” of the packaging screen and decide to purchase.