Design & healthy food habits

Neon Melons 2008

We can discuss the role of packaging to promote healthy food until our faces turns blue. But there need to be a demand that creates initiatives and thereof budgets to produce healthy food products.  This is when designers and creatives can start to create delicious irresistible branding and packaging, tempting the consumer to a different purchasing decision.

There are already many nice examples of food packaging promoting healthy products on the US market. Some general examples are water,  fruit juices (not all of them so healthy though) and specialized food products found in the deli section, taking packaging and design to another level. (The design as an integrated part of the branding where the consumer also buy into image and lifestyle, not only the product ) 

Unfortunately many of these products are found in the expensive food isles, making them unavailable for those who would have needed them most. And some are so specialized that you by social demographics already have excluded 75 % of the population as potential buyers. 

What we need is manufacturers producing and selling products to the mass food markets that are brave enough to be a little progressive when it comes to packaging too. A prediction is that some of those who dare to step up to this challenge might be winners in the long run. What we have started to see these days of campaigns and effort to fight obesity and make America healthy again is just a beginning. What before have been healthy fashion and exercise trends belonging to minor high education/income segments of the population has and will continue to go mainstream. The reality series "The biggest looser" is a good example of that.

It's not only about packaging but also the concept of food and how we think and feel about it. These are social related factors, habits and values that goes beyond the packaging and can take a bit longer to change. But the future is promising with a first lady now reaching the 1 year anniversary for her initiative "Let's Move", to fight obesity and improve the health of children. But it surely doesn't hurt to have new thinking companies around either. "Editable Arrangements" is a good example on how a company can change our view on a food concept, by making fruit just as tempting like any box of chocolate. 

The inspiration for this blogpost is an article written by Alexandra Lange: What should food look like?