Resource centre
Food Packaging Guides
10 guides written for the person who has to sign off the specification. They cover the decisions that are expensive to change after tooling, and they are deliberately specific about where each material fails as well as what it does well.
Sizing and specification
Getting the dimensions and the structure right before anything is tooled.
Food Tray Size Guide
How food tray sizes are described, what 1lb to 5lb actually means, how to choose a depth, and how to work out the footprint you need from the food you serve.
About 9 minutes to read
How to Measure a Food Tray
Exactly which measurements a packaging supplier needs, how to take them from a folded tray, and the four mistakes that produce a tray that does not fit.
About 7 minutes to read
Catering Tray Buying Guide
How to specify catering trays that survive the van and look right on the table: footprint families, lid overlap, stack strength, hand holes and where to put branding.
About 10 minutes to read
Materials and performance
What each board and fibre actually does, and where each one fails.
Food Tray Materials Explained
A plain-language comparison of the materials food trays are made from — kraft board, corrugated, moulded fibre and rigid board — and what each is genuinely good at.
About 11 minutes to read
Kraft vs Corrugated Food Trays
A direct comparison of solid kraft board and fluted corrugated trays: strength, cost, print quality, moisture behaviour, and which to choose for a given menu.
About 8 minutes to read
Choosing Trays for Hot and Greasy Foods
Why fried food ruins untreated board, how grease-resistant treatments work, and why venting matters more than sealing for anything that has to stay crisp.
About 8 minutes to read
Compostable Food Tray Material Guide
What moulded fibre, bagasse and compostable trays actually are, what compostable and biodegradable legally mean, and how to make claims you can support.
About 9 minutes to read
Printing and finishing
Colours, costs, file setup and the coatings that change how a tray behaves.
Food Tray Printing Guide
How printing on food trays works: spot colours versus process, what each colour count costs, how substrates change colour, and what a proof does and does not tell you.
About 10 minutes to read
Artwork Guide for Printed Food Trays
Exactly what a print-ready file needs: formats, resolution, bleed, safe areas, outlined fonts, colour specification and how to work with a dieline.
About 9 minutes to read
Food Tray Coatings and Finishes
What each coating and finish on a food tray actually does: grease and moisture barriers, matt and gloss laminates, varnishes, foiling — and what they cost you at end of life.
About 8 minutes to read
From the blog
Longer pieces on packaging problems, buying decisions and what actually changes when you specify properly.
- The Real Cost of Under-Specified Packaging
- What Food Businesses Get Wrong About Eco-Friendly Packaging
- How Much Do Custom Food Trays Cost?
- Food Tray Lead Times
- Why Delivery Food Arrives Soggy
- Stock Trays vs Custom Trays
- Switching Packaging Suppliers
- Minimum Order Quantities Explained
- A Packaging Checklist for Opening a Food Truck
Read the guides, then send us the hard part
If a guide has left you with a specific question about your own product, ask it. We would rather answer a detailed question now than quote against a guess.