Development of sustainable food packaging through product innovation process

Abstract: This paper explores how sustainable food packaging is developed through product innovation process. The studied case is Tetra Pak – a large, multinational food packaging producer. The case is explored primarily through interviews with Tetra Pak employees and is supported by the use of company electronic documentation. The study uses the product innovation process diagram together with sustainable packaging criteria and combines them to create a new framework. The result is a map of sustainable packaging criteria within product innovation process of food packaging, which visualises the complex process of sustainable food packaging innovation. What is more, the research findings show that there is a clear economic incentive for ensuring food safety in food packaging. Moreover, the research findings suggest that the social dimension of sustainability in food packaging can be seen as being in conflict with the environmental dimension. Last but not least, the business case showed that innovation with focus on adding positive environmental value (instead of just decreasing negative) to food packaging seems to be lacking. The study contributes to theory in several ways. Firstly, it integrates the TBL and sustainable packaging criteria together for the first time, which may be used and developed further by other researchers. Secondly, it tests sustainable packaging criteria presence in a packaging company with strong sustainability focus. Furthermore, the study contributes to theory by adjusting and extending the product innovation process diagram. The study contributes to practice by providing an example for practitioners and professionals for application of the sustainable packaging criteria into organizational processes. Moreover, the created map of sustainable packaging criteria in product innovation process can help professionals identify which parts of the product innovation process require contribution and focus towards what criteria in order to develop sustainable food packaging.