Traditional Packaging still preferred by consumers.

According to a report by the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) in conjunction with PACK EXPO, Americans continue to favor traditional packaging, including metal cans, instead of pouches and newer packaging in their food and beverage Purchases.

This report was based upon telephone interviews of 1,000 respondents who considered metal cans to be the safest of all containers. The study also revealed that busy consumers want future packaging to be simple, easy to use and convenient. This further reinforces the fact that all of the recent innovations in metal packaging and not only overwhelmingly applauded by consumers, it shows that the metal can remains one of the most economical, environmentally friendly and safest packaging format.

88% of the survey respondents favored traditional packaging such as metal cans, plastic and glass bottles and jars over pouches and paperboard packaging. There is also a perception by consumers that metal packaging is best at keeping nutrients without preservatives.

90% of survey respondents cited food safety and tampering as major concerns as that the metal can was the most tamper evident packaging followed by glass containers, plastic containers, paperboard packaging and the pouches used in packaging.

Robert Budway, CMI president proudly announced that "This packaging trends report captures a moment in time," and that "The metal-packaging industry is in the midst of a dynamic change with breakthrough innovations easy-to-use containers with twist-tops, resealable metal lids, pull-tab lids and peelable opening systems representing an exciting new chapter in the venerable food can's 200-year life." He went on to say "Increasingly convenient packaging methods and rising recycling rates highlight the new focus of the metal-can industry: improving the ease of consumers' lives and protecting the environment around them."

Cans have been on of the most successfully recycled component of packaging for many years now and my own experience has shown me that people who are not normally "recyclers" more of then that not at least recycle cans so it was not surprising to me that 86% of the packaging survey respondents listed metal cans as recyclable over paperboard and pouches.

I had the pleasure of spending hours discussing packaging and the evolution of packaging with two extremely well known packaging industry distribution insiders and our combined experience in the packaging field exceeded 50 years.

In both interviews the topic of cycles of evolutions in rigid packaging was disused at length. Metal cans for aerosol came up in one interview, and metal packaging for food and beverage played an important role in the second interview. Both insiders perspective clearly showed that while individual metal packaging components have changed - especially an aerosol packaging, metal packaging is still an integral part of their business and they expect that metal will continue to be so based upon their customers demand for traditional packaging.