FOR
INDIANA
FARMERS
INFORMATION
Volume 1, No. 5
Lafayette,  Indiana
November,  1947
Prepared by members of the Agricultural Staff of Purdue University
PACKAGING FARM PRODUCTS FOR PROFIT
By
G.   B.   WOOD,  Agricultural  Economics
One   of   the   newest   developments
turkey meat in small
MERCHANDISING is going
modern too. Gone are
the cracker barrel, the tub of
butter, the lard can, the bulk
sugar bin and other bulk merchandising methods which
were popular in grocery stores
25 years ago. Present day
consumers want to buy their
food in much smaller units on
a self service basis. The reason
for this is that families are
smaller, there is less food storage space in the average
home and it adds to the convenience of shopping.
The trend in packaging in
recent years has been one of
the most noticeable innovations in the field of retailing.
Many farm products still are not sold to any great extent in
small unit packages. This situation will not continue much
longer if the consumer continues to show a preference for
packaged foods.
Packaging Requires Cooperation
The development of unit packaging places definite responsibilities upon the grower, the processor and the distributors who sell the produce. If the packaging of farm
products is to succeed in the same way that packaged processed foods have, a high degree of quality standardization
must be maintained. Packaging makes it more difficult, and
in many cases practically impossible, for the purchaser to
inspect the product.
A buyer of cheese, for example, cannot conveniently
unwrap a half pound package and cut a sample from it to
make sure that it suits his taste. If the flavor of the cheese
purchased today is good and the flavor of the cheese bought
a week later is not good, the consumer is going to be skeptical of what he buys. It has been demonstrated in the field
of packaged lettuce that variations in quality of the packaged product definitely affect consumer acceptance and
sales.
Usually, the average consumers make a decision to buy
on the basis of inspection. They rely primarily on their senses   
in   packaging   is   merchandising
consumer  packages.
of taste, smell, touch and
sight. If consumers are unable
to use one or more of these
basic senses in buying food,
they must have some assurance that the quality of the
product will be uniform from
day to day and from week to
week. The food industry,
through standardized processing methods, has brought
about a high degree of uniformity in many items.
In the case of poultry, dairy
products and fruits and vegetables some marketing organizations have found it desirable to set up standards or
specifications for producing these items. Products must come
up to specification or the marketing organization will not
handle it when it is ready for market.
New Techniques Being Adopted
Recent developments in the sale of meats, dairy products,
fruits and vegetables, and poultry products suggest that the
packaging of these products may go a long way toward
maintaining or expanding the markets for these food items.
If these techniques are as successful as current research and
experiments indicate they may be, profits for producers will
be larger than they otherwise might be.
Meats
Meats, for example, were first sold in package form on
a self service basis many years ago. The problems of refrigeration, wrapping, and handling were such that this new
technique never reached a high degree of consumer acceptance. Within the last year, a new interest has been shown in
selling meats on a self service basis. It has been recognized
for years that the meat counter is a bottleneck in the average
food store or super market.
One Indianapolis merchant is eliminating this bottleneck
by wrapping steaks, chops, roasts and other cuts in one,
two and three pound packages so that consumers can serve