Custom Deli Food Paper

Why deli sheets come interfolded in a pop-up box

Each sheet is folded into the one beneath it, so pulling one lifts the edge of the next and leaves it standing in the slot of the box. That is the whole reason the format exists: a worker with meat on a glove never has to pinch apart two flat sheets. The box itself is a folding carton with a perforated tear-out window on top, and it sits on the counter beside the slicer for the whole shift.

Because the box is in front of the customer all day, it is a printed object in its own right. Plenty of delis print the box and leave the sheet plain; others print the sheet with a light pattern so the parcel carries the name home. Both are one quote.

Sheet sizes that match the work at the counter

Dry wax, and what it does to a slice of cheese

Deli sheets are usually a light paper with the wax driven into the fibers rather than sitting on top. That dry wax finish is what lets thin provolone or turkey peel away cleanly instead of sticking and tearing, and it keeps moisture from soaking through during the short walk from counter to fridge. A heavier sheet is stiffer in the hand and wraps a neater parcel; a lighter one pulls faster from the box and is cheaper per thousand. Sliced meat is wet, cheese is oily, and the grade is chosen for which of the two the counter handles most.

Where a counter also wraps hot sandwiches, that job belongs to a heavier sheet, and our printed sandwich paper cut to the wrap is the better fit.

What the printed sheet has to survive

• Food-contact inks on the outer face only, with the pattern kept light so it never reads as a stain on the meat.
• An all-over repeat rather than a single centered logo, since every parcel is folded differently.
• Print that stays legible through refrigeration and the condensation that comes with it.
• A sheet that can still be written on with a marker for weight, price or the customer’s name.

Who orders deli paper by the case

Delicatessens and butcher counters, grocery service counters, cheese shops, Italian and kosher delis, sandwich shops that slice in-house, and caterers building cold platters. The same case of sheets also separates portions in a prep fridge and lines a tray under a sandwich. Our full range of printed food papers covers the jobs a deli sheet is too light for.

Tell us which sheet size the counter uses most and what goes on it, meat, cheese or both. That sets the weight, the wax and the box count.

Weights, counts and how fast a box empties

A busy counter can go through a box of deli sheets in a shift, so the count per box and the number of boxes per case are set from how the counter actually works, not from a catalog standard. A light sheet packs more to a box and pulls faster; a medium sheet packs fewer and wraps a firmer parcel that holds its shape in a grocery bag.

We quote the sheet weight, the count per box and the boxes per case together, so a reorder is the same three numbers every time. If two sizes run side by side at one counter, the boxes can be printed in two colors so the right one is grabbed without reading the label.