Spice Packaging: Do's and Don'ts

Spices are the bread and butter that helps season our food, improve holistic wellness, and facilitate global import and exports to stimulate our economy. It has historically been a lucrative industry and that has only continued to grow with each year. The spice packaging market is currently valued at $1.1 billion and is showing continued growth in sectors like retail and home cooking. As the largest market, spice packaging has expanded to include applications like dips and dressing mixes, dry seasoning mixes, and spice blends.

Adapting Market Demands

The current items used for spice packaging range from bottles, jars, pouches, bags, canisters, and more. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a shift in home cooking which has caused the demand for premium and gourmet spices to rise. With spice consumption remaining strong for consumers, wholesale and bulk buyers will have to adapt their spice packaging materials to maintain quality, safety, and supply. If you’re looking to improve or enhance your spice packaging tactics, we’re covering the do’s and don’ts of spice packaging.

Select The Right Container For Your Spices

Whether you’re a wholesale business or buyer, selecting the right container for your spices is vital to maintaining quality and preserving the integrity of the product before it hits the shelves. Today’s spice categories can vary based on blends and where it’s sourced from which can make determining the best type of container a meticulous process.

Spice packaging can include whole spice powder, dry blends, or herbs for different recipes which means the type of packaging used has to accommodate the type of spice you are selling. Empty space within the container can allow moisture and air into the product which can alter the spice contents in transit or on the shelves.

Currently, in the spice packaging industry common packaging options can include:

• Wide mouth jars

• Glass jars that come with a spoon

• Opaque containers

• Square, honey pot, or rectangle-shaped glass jars

Spice packaging materials are some of the popular items on the market with most businesses opting for smaller-sized containers with higher value features to look more aesthetically appealing. As consumers are rallying behind more eco-friendly solutions and options, you’ll want to consider sustainable options to enhance your branding and improve your environmental impact on the globe.

Glass packaging has proven to be a resourceful and eco-friendly option that allows businesses to have creative freedom with their spice packaging. When researching your spice packaging options, make sure to review options like glass grinder jars or glass tubes instead of plastic.

Review Your Spice Packaging Labels

Labels are a vital component of the spice packaging product that conveys your brand, type of spice, and pertinent information like ingredients. In today’s ever-changing climate with rising temperatures and varying degrees between shipping, the material used to create and adorn your spice supplies can significantly affect the overall appearance of the product.

As we previously mentioned, glass packaging continues to reign supreme as a spice packaging material because of its durability, sustainability, and ability to keep the products fresh. Here are a few examples of labels that are best suited for glass bottles and jars:

• Vinyl: Strong and flexible options that can be easily molded to fit different glass bottles and jars.

• BOPP: Biaxially-Oriented Polypropylene, a variant of polypropylene, is highly resistant to water and oils and is ideal for indirect contact with food.

• Polypropylene: A more cost-efficient option to vinyl with the durability to withstand moisture, oils, and grease.

• Polyester: An ideal label material for candles, this is a great choice for withstanding high heat and prolonged exposure to the elements.

• Paper: Provides the texture and color options for custom branding, but isn’t durable against the elements unless laminated.

Other Considerations For Spice Packaging

Paper, plastic, embossing, moisture-proof are just a few types of labels to consider for your spice packaging, but should you always factor the environment which directly affects your products (moisture, heat, oil, etc.). As you are sourcing and compiling different spice packaging options for wholesale purchase, don’t forget to research your permits and licenses and be compliant with FDA regulations. The FDA is very particular about the types of information required to consider an ingredient a “spice” and those nutritional facts must be included on the label.

Spice Packaging & Marketing

When you are working on your spice packaging materials, you do want to consider your packaging design and labels to help market the products. We’ve previously discussed how the type of label can impact the packaging of a product and vice versa, but the branding side of the label design is a different story. When purchasing different spice packaging materials, you want to consider how they can be marketed to consumers.

Certain bottle shapes, sizes, and aesthetically looking packaging may have a different effect on the consumer based on current home trends. The modern consumer is influenced by their favorite celebrities, media outlets, and home and goods stores to curb their purchasing decisions. You want to consider buying spice packaging that you can market to the mainstream. A few spice packaging options to consider when thinking ahead to design and branding:

• Text

• Color scheme

• Incorporating the design with the bottles

• The length and width of the bottles

While sourcing the right spice packaging materials can help contribute to the success of the business, the ability to purchase marketable materials is also important. Consider researching what type of spice packaging is trending or popular at this time, perhaps metal jars with a glass lid have more marketability than wooden spoons. Work with your marketing team to help conduct research that can help inform your purchasing decisions for maximum success.

Are you ready to take these spice packaging do’s and don’ts and apply them to your next purchase? Remember to always select the right container sizes for your spice packaging so you don’t lose the overall quality of the product, don’t forget to research which labels would be the option for your bottles, and consider the marketability of your spice packaging before buying wholesale.