7x food packaging that desperately needs improving

Dear students studying packaging design or applied design, we have a wonderful subject for every practical assignment you have to do, plus a graduation project to be proud of. Because some supermarket packaging, grrr… Surely that could be better?

With some packaging you really wonder how it was ever designed. There are surely some clever minds working at Unilever and other major food companies. Is there really never anyone there who thinks: gosh, couldn’t this be more convenient? These are seven little annoyances, but if you look through your kitchen cupboard I’m sure you’ll find a few more.

Cold cuts safely packaged

The packaging for cold cuts: even the vault of the Dutch Central Bank is easier to get into. And the same goes for pre-sliced cheese. Why can’t you open and reseal these things more easily?

Trail of flour

Paper bags of flour and self-raising flour… They tear easily, create a ridiculous cloud of dust and always leave a trail on the checkout conveyor belt. Is there really nothing that can be done about this?

Balloon of crisps

What’s the thinking behind bags of crisps? Crisps break easily, so let’s package them in… a bag. A bag that tears quickly, in which you crush the crisps just by looking at it, and that explodes if you accidentally drop something hard on it. Because, besides crisps, extra air has been pumped in, as if it were a balloon.

Getting creative with chewing gum

The packaging for chewing gum: you have to pull a string loose, fold over a cardboard flap, tear open a blister pack, slide a strip out of a carton, pry open a little jar, or…

Tap, tap, croissants

Explosion hazard! At least if you buy that croissant dough in a tin. You remove the wrapper, tap the tin against the edge of the countertop, and then… nothing happens. You tap it again, and again, prise it open with a knife and then poof, all the croissant dough is suddenly all over your hands. Surely that could be better?

All over your shirt

Have you ever opened a sachet of ketchup or mustard? And, in desperation, tried to tear it open with your teeth? No further explanation needed.

Three minutes on…?

This situation: you’re craving a microwave meal, so you remove the cardboard wrapper, pierce holes in the film, stand in front of the microwave and then: how long was it supposed to go in again? And then you have to rummage through the rubbish and newspaper bin to find the packaging again. Something isn’t right here, but what?

Eat the whole roll

All biscuit packages tear open in an impossible way. Solution: eat all those biscuits in one go, or resign yourself to the rest going stale. Neither is ideal, but if we have to choose…

Also read:

• Packaging misery in the supermarket: the struggle is real
• 14x the strangest names on supermarket packaging
• The most delicious tomato soup ever comes straight from the supermarket – and this is it