Corrugated Crawfish Tray
A crawfish tray carries several pounds of hot, wet, seasoned shellfish, often with corn and potatoes, straight out of a boil.
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Custom Food Trays in Maryland
Maryland’s crab trade produces one of the most demanding packaging requirements we deal with. A steamed crab service is hot, wet, seasoned, heavy and eaten communally over a long period — a combination that finds the weakness in any board tray that has not been specified for it.
The state also has a substantial corporate catering market adjacent to the capital region, which is a completely different specification exercise.
- 6
- trays shortlisted for this market
- 1 day
- typical quote turnaround
- Freight
- quoted to your address, not ex-works
- Made to order
- no stock sizes to work around
Quotes delivered to Maryland
Tell us the tray, the quantity and where it is going. Freight is quoted to your address rather than added later.
Wet shellfish service is the hardest case
Fluted board wicks liquid along its flutes faster than it absorbs it through the liner, and heat accelerates that considerably. A steamed crab service delivers heat and water together, for an extended period, under real weight.
A tray specified for it needs a genuine moisture barrier on the food-contact face and a board grade with margin — not a grease-resistant treatment, which addresses a different problem. If you have had trays soften during a service, that is almost certainly what happened.
Specifying for a crab or shellfish service
Tell us the service duration
A crab service can run for an hour or more at a table. That is a very different specification from a tray handed over and eaten in ten minutes.
Weight matters as much as moisture
A shared shellfish portion is heavy, and it is heavy while it is wet, which is when board is weakest.
Ice changes everything
Melting ice becomes standing water — the hardest condition of all. Tell us how long ice sits and we will specify honestly.
Communal formats
Shellfish is shared. Size for the table rather than the person, and measure the area a spread portion covers.
Corporate catering in the capital region
- Lidded trays sized to covers per tray, with enough lid overlap that nothing lifts in a van.
- Sandwich platters sized to your cut and rounds per platter rather than a nominal size.
- Header-board catering trays for buffet service, where the header is the most visible printed surface.
- Compartment trays for institutional and government catering contracts.
Trays we supply to Maryland
Chosen against the requirements described above, not as a general catalogue listing.
Oyster Serving Tray
Oysters on the half shell have one packaging requirement above all others: they must stay level.
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Moulded Pulp Meat Tray
The whole argument for a fibre meat tray is what happens to the liquid.
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Catering Tray with Lid
The lidded catering tray is the format that most drop-off caterers standardise on, because it is the only one that solves the whole journey.
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Shrimp Cocktail Tray
The shrimp platter is one of the most instantly recognisable formats in food retail: a ring of prawns arranged tail-inward around a central pot of cockt…
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Corrugated Sandwich Platter
The corporate sandwich platter is one of the highest-volume formats in catering, and the specification is almost entirely determined by how you cut your…
View tray & get pricing →Supplying Maryland: common questions
Why do trays soften during a crab service?
Heat and water together, over an extended period, under weight. Fluted board wicks liquid along its flutes and heat accelerates it. It needs a genuine moisture barrier, not a grease-resistant treatment, which addresses a different problem.
What is the difference between grease and moisture resistance?
They target different things. Grease resistance stops oil migrating in from fried food. Moisture resistance handles water, steam and condensation. A wet shellfish service needs the second one specifically.
Can a tray hold ice through a service?
With a proper barrier, for a period. Melting ice becomes standing water, which is the hardest condition there is for board or fibre. Tell us how long and we will specify accordingly or recommend a different material.
How do I size a communal shellfish tray?
For the table rather than the person. Serve a typical shared portion, spread rather than piled, and measure the area it covers. That is the internal footprint.
Do you supply corporate caterers in the capital region?
Yes. Lidded trays sized to covers, sandwich platters sized to your cut, and enough lid overlap that nothing lifts in transit — those three things account for most catering packaging complaints.
Can you supply retail seafood packs as well?
Yes — absorbent fibre trays with ribbed bases, film-seal compatible, with a flat panel planned for the barcode and legal information before artwork starts.
Other states we supply
Other countries we supply
Get a quote delivered to Maryland
Send the specification, the quantity and the delivery address. We come back with unit price, tooling if any, freight and a real production date.