Food retail drivers of sustainable packaging and labelling: a review

Purpose – Sustainable packaging and labelling play an increasingly important role in food retail as communication tools that influence consumer perceptions and behaviours. Understanding how retailers can effectively leverage these tools to encourage consumer adoption and foster sustainable consumption is therefore crucial. Accordingly, this paper systematically reviews the literature on sustainable packaging and labelling in food retailing to identify key research gaps and outline directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach – Following the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, 271 articles from Web of Science and Scopus were systematically reviewed, examining publication trends, methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and key constructs in food retail. Findings – The review identifies the main theories and constructs, methodologies, and dependent variables investigated in existing literature. It also reveals five thematic clusters concerning labels, psychological drivers, awareness, social influences, and packaging/branding, and proposes a future research agenda covering theoretical and methodological developments. Originality/value – This study provides an integrative synthesis of the fragmented literature on sustainable packaging and labelling in food retail. Identifying five thematic clusters and synthesising prior findings, it supports cumulative theory building and offers actionable insights for retailers and policymakers seeking to promote sustainable consumption.