Custom Paper Food Trays
Take the lid off a box and you remove most of what was holding it square. A tray keeps its shape entirely through how its four corners are made, which is why that single decision matters more here than board thickness ever does.
- Builds
- Lock corner, glued corner, compartmented, food boats
- Board
- Grease-resistant food-grade; corrugated for catering sizes
- Corners
- Glued wherever anything wet, oily or hot is served
Get a price for Paper Food Trays
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Lock corner or glued, and the difference is leaks
A lock corner is folded and tucked — no glue, flat-packs tightly, and leaves a small mechanical gap at each corner. For chips, bread and anything dry it is perfect and cheaper.
The moment anything wet is served — sauce, oil, melted cheese, marinade — that gap is where it leaves. A glued corner seals it completely, costs a little more and cannot be flat-packed as tightly.
Test with the actual food, warm. A lock-corner tray that holds water at room temperature will still let hot oil through.
Depth is a serving decision, not a packaging one
Loaded fries and nachos want shallow and wide, because the toppings are the product. Rice and stews want deep, because nobody is buying them on how they look from above.
| Shallow, wide | Shows everything; food cools fast; right for loaded and shared dishes |
|---|---|
| Medium | The general-purpose tray; portioned sides and street food |
| Deep | Holds heat and hides the contents; portioned by volume rather than appearance |
| Compartmented | Keeps a wet element away from a crisp one |
Everything served in a tray is greasy
- Fried food reaches the outer face of plain board within minutes and transfers to hands.
- Grease-resistant food-grade board handles it without a PFAS treatment and stays repulpable.
- A printed liner or a sheet of greaseproof catches what escapes and can be changed cheaply.
- No gloss varnish on the inner face — that is where food and fingers are.
A full tray is heavier than the size suggests
There is no lid adding rigidity, so the base carries the load alone and flexes when the tray is picked up by its sides. That flex is what tips a full tray forward.
For counter-sized trays a heavy grease-resistant board with well-built corners is enough. For catering sizes it is corrugated — the board and corner reasoning is set out in our open tray notes.
A sleeve turns a stock tray into a branded one
A plain tray plus a printed sleeve is usually cheaper than a fully printed tray, and it lets one stock tray serve several menu items with only the sleeve changing.
The sleeve also carries whatever information has to appear, keeping the tray itself simple and its inner face free of print where the food sits.
Paper Food Trays — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Builds
- Lock corner, glued corner, compartmented, food boats
- Board
- Grease-resistant food-grade; corrugated for catering sizes
- Corners
- Glued wherever anything wet, oily or hot is served
- Options
- Printed sleeves, greaseproof liners, film lids
- Direct print or plain tray with a printed sleeve; no varnish on the food face
- Minimum
- 100 trays
On every job
- Print process
- Flexo in one to six colors, printed on the outer face only and before any lining goes on.
- Color
- Food-safe inks throughout. Kraft mutes color; a white board or liner is needed for anything photographic.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1 mm, and fit confirmed by filling a plain sample from your own kitchen or line.
- Tooling
- A cutting die per size, kept. Molded pulp needs a tool per shape, which is a longer lead and a larger one-off.
- Food contact
- Every board food-contact grade, with grease resistance built into the sheet and never a PFAS treatment.
- Sustainability
- Aqueous linings and unlined boards repulp with ordinary paper. PE-lined cups need cup collection, and we say which you have.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build paper food trays on
Food packaging is chosen for what the food does to it: grease, steam, heat and time. Every board here is food-contact grade, and none of them uses a PFAS treatment for grease resistance.
Food-grade virgin board
Bleached board made for direct food contact. Clean, bright, no recycled fiber and no mineral-oil risk from recovered paper.
14–24ptGrease-resistant board
Resistance built into the sheet rather than sprayed on. Holds fries, pastry and butter without darkening. PFAS-free.
16–24ptPE-lined cupstock
Board with a polyethylene film for hot and cold liquid. Microwave-safe for reheating; recycled only where cup collection exists.
260–350gsmAqueous-lined cupstock
A water-based lining instead of PE. Repulpable in ordinary paper recycling in more places, and compostable; a slightly shorter hold time.
260–320gsmGreaseproof and glassine
Dense, calendered paper that resists fat through the fiber. Wraps, liners and interleaves; breathable, so pastry stays crisp.
30–55gsmFood-grade corrugated
E and B flute with a food-contact liner, vented where steam has to leave. Pizza, catering and anything hot and heavy.
E and B fluteMolded pulp and bagasse
Fiber pressed into a shape. Holds heat, resists grease with no lining, composts, and takes only an embossed or one-color mark.
Molded to shapeRecycled board
Post-consumer fiber. Used for outers, sleeves and anything that does not touch food directly — not for direct contact.
Non-contact onlyNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Food finishes are limited by what may touch food, and that is the point.
Food-safe inks
Printed on the outer face only. Every food pack we make uses them, laminated or not.
Uncoated kraft
No coating at all. Breathable, so pastry stays crisp, and it takes one or two colors.
Aqueous varnish
Scuff resistance without a plastic film, so the pack still repulps.
Molded emboss
A logo pressed into pulp or bagasse. No ink, nothing to rub off, and it survives grease.
Grease-resistant face
Not a finish you can see. It is in the sheet, it is PFAS-free, and it is why the print stays clean.
Matte lamination
Available on outers and sleeves that never touch food — a cake box lid, a carrier, a gift sleeve.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing food packaging around a portion, hot: paper food trays
Food is sized by serving, not by dimensions, and it is served hot, heaped and in a hurry. Send us the portion — or better, the box you use now with the food in it — and we size to how it is actually filled.
- Portion, heaped
- Fries, popcorn and salad are served above the rim. A box sized to a level fill looks mean and spills in a bag.
- Lid clearance
- Enough that a loaded burger or a topped cake does not touch the lid. This is the single most common complaint about a food box.
- Venting
- Hot food steams. Vents in the lid keep pastry and fries crisp; a sealed box is right only for cold food.
- Grease path
- Where the fat sits decides the board. Say if the food is fried, buttered or sauced, and whether it is held for minutes or an hour.
- Stacking in a bag
- Delivery boxes are stacked five high on a bike. The lid has to hold the box above it off the food below.
- Sample fill
- A plain box filled from your kitchen settles the size in one try, and we send one before the run.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Build your Paper Food Trays in 3D
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a board and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about paper food trays? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
Why is my tray leaking?
A lock corner has a small mechanical gap by design. Anything wet or hot needs a glued corner.
Shallow or deep?
Shallow where the toppings are the product. Deep where the food is portioned by volume and does not need to be seen.
My tray bends when lifted — heavier board?
Partly, and check the corner build. There is no lid adding rigidity, so both matter more than in a closed box.
Print the tray or use a sleeve?
A sleeve is usually cheaper, keeps print off the food face, and lets one stock tray serve several menu items.
What is the minimum order?
100 trays, lock corner or glued.
Can I get a compartmented tray?
Yes — it keeps a wet element away from a crisp one, which is the whole point on loaded dishes.
Why is my tray leaking?
A lock corner has a small mechanical gap by design. Anything wet or hot needs a glued corner.
Shallow or deep?
Shallow where the toppings are the product. Deep where the food is portioned by volume and does not need to be seen.
My tray bends when lifted — heavier board?
Partly, and check the corner build. There is no lid adding rigidity, so both matter more than in a closed box.
Print the tray or use a sleeve?
A sleeve is usually cheaper, keeps print off the food face, and lets one stock tray serve several menu items.
Same range
