Reducing time spent on meal prep and cooking frees up time for family and fun activities and is the reason nearly 70% of consumers chose convenient meal options. More than half of respondents said they’re purchasing hot and cold ready-to-eat meals at the grocery store so they can have meals for one and have easy side dishes for home cooked meals.

But packaging plays a significant role in the foods they buy. Food freshness was the most important consideration for 73% of respondents when buying food from stores and restaurants, and 86% said being able to see through the packaging to determine what the product looks like would make them more likely to buy it. 

Most consumers (77%) also said they consider sustainable packaging important, and more than 40% felt it was the company’s responsibility for offering eco-friendly food packaging for their products. However, there’s some confusion about how to recycle or dispose of food packaging, and about 1 in 3 respondents who want to dispose or recycle packaging correctly aren’t sure how to do so.

For more insights, see the full nclick="javascript:window.open('http://www.goodnaturedproducts.com/pages/bioplastic-packaging-insights', '_blank', 'noopener'); return false;">Ready-to-Eat report.