Smart packaging results in sweeter taste

For consumer acceptance, it is important that a product reduced in sugar tastes sufficiently sweet. Besides compensating the taste with sweeteners, there is another solution: through packaging features such as colour and information, consumers can be made to expect products with less sugar to taste sweeter. According to experts from Wageningen University & Research, such an expectation has an effect on the taste experience.

The characteristics of packaging

The packaging is one of the first things a consumer sees of a food product. Each package contains important extrinsic product characteristics, such as information in the form of text, images, logos and labels, price, and in addition the package has a colour. All these cues influence the consumer's taste expectation of the product, and thus its sweetness.

With knowledge of specific perceptual psychological strategies, manufacturers can deliberately choose extrinsic product attributes that increase the perceived sweetness, and hence consumer acceptance, of their (sugar-reduced) products. Full compensation with sweeteners is then no longer always necessary.

The effect of packaging colour 

Shoppers recognise what they need by the packaging and usually make purchasing decisions quickly and automatically. One of the packaging features that triggers a rapid response is colour. An online study by WUR shows that consumers who choose the same product in two different pack colours expect red packaged products to be sweeter than blue packaged products, and green packaged products to be the least sweet.

The colour of the packaging can also create an expectation that a producer would rather not associate with his product. For example, pastel coloured packaging, often used for low fat or low sugar products, may be associated with health but also with a 'watered down' taste. In addition, packaging colour is often associated with certain associations, for example with a brand, a particular retail chain, or a particular product variant.

The effect of information 

Information in the form of text and labels has a great effect on how the consumer experiences a product. Even a single word can change the sensory evaluation of a food product. For example, research has shown that the same M&Ms are judged to be significantly more chocolatey if the label says 'pure' compared to 'milk'.

It also appears that labels have a great impact. Various labels were examined, including 'no sugar added', 'low in sugar', a statement suggesting that the product is good for you, and also 'treat product', 'high in sugar' and two Nutri-Scores. For all three products, the information on the labels had more influence on the expected sweetness than packaging colour. A 'healthy' label led to a reduction in expected sweetness, whereas a 'treat' label and a triangular warning label indicating a high sugar content led to a sweeter taste expectation. The information on the labels influenced the likelihood of choosing the product more than packaging colour. This can have a different effect on the expectation and ultimately on the tasted sweetness.

A 'healthy' label can also create a negative taste expectation, for example in the case of salt content. Consumers expect that a label 'with less salt' will make the product taste bland.

Sugar and more

Of course, there are many more characteristics of packaging that influence the expectations and (choice) behaviour of consumers. Examples include images on the packaging, the brand, the shape, the weight, the material and the noise when opening. Also, well designed packaging is not only suitable to improve consumer acceptance of products with a reduced sugar content. They can also improve the acceptance of other reformulated products with less salt, less fat and/or more fibre, of new products, and of products in which animal protein has been replaced by vegetable protein or of foodstuffs with new ingredients, for example extracted from a waste stream.

Sugar reduction strategy

Experts from Wageningen have developed the 'sugar reduction strategy', which enables them to propose promising new recipes to manufacturers on the basis of the physical and chemical functionalities of the ingredients. They make use of the WUR sugar reduction tool. This way of working results in a big improvement in efficiency and a considerable shortening of the reformulation process.

Download the whitepaper ‘Slim verpakken geeft zoetere smaak’ (Dutch only)

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