A new research study by global glass packaging manufacturer O-I reveals that parents favour glass packaging for baby food because they believe it preserves product freshness, keeps food safe and healthy, and allows easy identification of the product inside.
The global qualitative research* was conducted with parents (predominantly mothers) of children aged between 5 months and 3 years, in ten cities worldwide, including London, Paris, Munich and Warsaw. It aimed to discover how parents use pre-packaged baby foods, and what level of importance they place on convenience, safety, taste, environmental concerns and other factors.
“Feeding a baby his first foods can be a highly rewarding experience, but it can also be stressful and frustrating at times. We wanted to understand more about the needs, concerns and preferences of mothers at this stage, and how they differ from country to country,” says Viivika Remmel, O-I’s Food Marketing Manager. “Gaining a deeper understanding into parents’ perspectives will help us to develop the most appropriate glass packaging solution for parents and their babies in the future.”
It is clear from the research that across Europe, parents’ highest priorities are trusted brand, product freshness, and health and wellness benefits such as “organic”. Convenience is the next most important factor. By their very nature, prepared baby foods are perceived as “convenience” foods, and generally speaking, parents are less concerned with the specific convenience or one form of packaging over another than with the contents.
Not surprisingly, many parents believe that glass is the best form of packaging for baby foods. Pure, non-toxic and non-porous, a glass jar needs no internal lining material and is therefore completely safe for storing all types of food. It preserves the taste, texture, colour and aroma of baby foods. For more information visit www.baby.eu.o-i.com.
Educating young tastebuds
Every mother knows that first tastes have a major impact on a child’s ability to enjoy a wide variety of foods: encouraging them to try and get used to new flavours is the best way of minimising the “fussy eater” problems that can emerge during the second and third years. It is therefore important to parents that the food their babies eat is as fresh, authentic and tasty – in fact as close to home cooking - as possible. For this reason, many favour glass packaging, particularly in countries such as France and Poland, where the art of preserving home-made foods in glass jars is prevalent. According to the O-I study, mums also like the fact that glass allows them to see what is inside before buying the product, offering additional reassurance about the authenticity of the contents.
In some countries, such as the UK, mothers cite “organic” as a prerequisite to purchasing a brand, and also look for products offering 100% pure, natural ingredients, without additives, preservatives or thickeners, and those containing “superfood” ingredients. Conversely, many of the new “organic” products – purchased for their health and wellness benefits - are packaged in plastic pots, which European consumers believe to be the least healthy and least environmentally friendly of all packaging materials, according to research conducted in April 2009 by FEVE (the European Glass Packaging Federation)**. The same research reveals that the number of parents who would prefer to use glass-packaged baby foods is double the number who regularly purchase them, pointing to a discrepancy between consumer desire and availability.
Environmental concerns
The O-I study demonstrates that although mothers believe that they are motivated by environmental concerns when it comes to packaging, their purchasing decisions do not necessarily bear this out. While most mums consider themselves to be concerned about the environment, and recycle their household waste where possible, they admitted in the study that other concerns are more important when it comes to choosing baby foods. Some mums also feel that products are using “environmentally-friendly” as a marketing gimmick, although they acknowledge that glass has a right to this claim, being 100% recyclable.
“Our research has revealed an interesting picture of baby food use across Europe, demonstrating the importance parents place on giving their babies the best possible nutritional start in life. Although there are differences from country to country, parents show a universal preference for high quality, natural and authentic products that are guaranteed to be safe, and they trust glass to deliver these benefits,” concludes Viivika Remmel.