DS Smith-commissioned analysis finds over half of supermarket food packaged in excessive plastic

The newly released Material Change Index, commissioned by DS Smith and conducted by Retail Economics, finds that supermarkets in Europe are still overly reliant on “unnecessary” plastic packaging. The report analyzed 1,500 F&B items found in 25 of the most popular supermarket chains in six European countries, aiming to improve understanding of plastic usage in food retail across countries.

According to the research, 70% of F&B products sold in UK supermarkets contain plastic, making it the most reliant on this type of packaging. Spain follows the UK with 67% of F&B items including plastic, 66% in Germany, 62% in Poland and 59% in France, where plastic packaging dependence is the lowest. 

“Good progress has been made, but there is more to do. The government can and should demand more of us all — phasing out certain plastics to create a level playing field that encourages innovation and investment and generates healthy competition to replace plastic,” comments Miles Roberts, group chief executive at DS Smith.

A DS-Smith spokesperson, tells Packaging Insights: “We are recommending a unified approach to replacing certain plastic rather than relying on voluntary targets with the goal of creating a level playing field to increase plastic replacement as, right now, going up a gear on plastic replacement could make businesses uncompetitive, creating a first-mover disadvantage.”

The Material Change Index research reveals that most of the supermarket plastic packaging came from processed foods, including ready-meals and meal kits (90%), bread, rice and cereals (89%), dairy products (83%), and meat and fish (80%).

Field analysis 

The Material Change Index relied on two key measures: a basket analysis and a store inventory analysis. 

Plastic in shopping baskets according to the Material Change Index (Image credit: DS Smith).The basket analysis examined the proportion of routinely purchased items in a typical grocery shopping basket containing plastic packaging. The basket included fifty items found to be representative of the regular household F&B purchases in each market.

These items were weighted based on their importance in the overall food shop, incorporating retailer market share, consumer spending patterns and harmonized consumer price index weightings for each country.

The store inventory analysis considered the proportion of various F&B items packaged in plastic across different store areas. The analysis was weighted by retailer market share and store size to account for the diversity of products and packaging types on supermarket shelves. 

The basket analysis and the store inventory analysis were combined to form the overall plastic packaging index, which provides a weighted average of plastic across a representative shopping basket and product range in stores. 

Analysis and expert survey

The Material Change Index conducted an “unnecessary” plastic analysis following the store audits. DS Smith packaging specialists conducted this analysis to find out where plastic packaging could be “safely removed or significantly reduced” by switching to an alternative. 

For this analysis, the products were categorized as having “removable plastic” (where the plastic content is an alternative, such as fiber or glass, is less than 1% by weight, including loose items) or “reducible plastic” (where plastic can be significantly reduced to less than 5% of the weight while remailing recyclable within a standard process). 

According to the Material Change Index food companies face barriers to moving away from plastic (Image credit: DS Smith).Lastly, the index also considered a B2B survey conducted in June 2024, which collected inputs from 300 F&B industry experts working in packaging or sustainability in the same six European countries.

The survey found that almost all (98%) respondents have made commitments to reduce plastic packaging.

Three in five (60%) have two years or less left to reach the targets they have committed to, with a quarter (25%) indicating they are not on track to reach them in time.

Two in five (40%) respondents stated that the main obstacle to meeting targets is the cost of raw materials, closely followed by the fear that consumers would not accept changes (39%).