Consumers love food sold in clear packaging, but it's a struggle for food companies because light degrades food. WSJ's Sarah Nassauer reports on Lunch Break with Sara Murray. Photo: Joshua Scott for The Wall Street Journal
The grocery store is having a moment of clarity.
Yogurt to granola to tortilla chips are showing up in clear packages. The thinking: Shoppers are more inclined to buy when they see what they're getting.
Transparent packaging, though, is surprisingly hard to make. Food often isn't ready for a big reveal after a package has suffered shipping, shelf stocking and other jostling. Companies scrutinize even small packaging changes because they can be expensive. Packaging also drastically affects how long food stays fresh. Light degrades many foods, making clear wrappers especially tricky to use.
Food makers also need to adjust recipes with visibility in mind, making sure fruit pieces are big enough to be seen in yogurt and tortilla chips remain intact.
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Joshua Scott for The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas
General Mills Inc.  worked for more than a year to put Larabar Uber fruit-and-nut bars in clear wrappers, says JoAnne Garbe, packaging research and development manager for the company. Her team tested clear films, which are layers of thin plastic fused together to control the flow of oxygen, light and moisture in and out of a package. Each version went into a climate-controlled box to mimic conditions such as grocery store shelves (dark and dry) and a convenience store counter (direct sunlight on a humid day), Ms. Garbe says.
"Oil in nuts is particularly tricky because it oxidizes," when exposed to light, she says.
The effort paid off, says Julia Wing-Larson, marketing manager for Larabar. When the clear wrapper version of the bar hit shelves earlier this year consumers said, in surveys, that the bars looked like they tasted better, felt less artificial and the ingredients seemed fresher, she says. The recipe hadn't changed. General Mills is using more transparent packaging on its other products.
Clear packaging gives products an aura of being natural, something that more shoppers are seeking. Seeing "simple, wholesome ingredients," can be a powerful motivation to buy, says Ms. Wing-Larson. "You eat with your eyes."
More often, the packaging style is also a weapon against the competition. Coca-ColaCo. 's Simply Orange juice has encroached on PepsiCo Inc.'s Tropicana orange juice sales over the past decade in part because it was first to put orange juice in a clear pitcher-shaped bottle. The bottle, marketers say, gave consumers the feeling of drinking something fresh. Tropicana now comes in a clear jug.