When you opened your bakery, you made sure to stock your kitchen with all the necessary ingredients, design your logo, create a website, and even produce promotional t-shirts. However, you forgot to consider one critical element: packaging. How can your potential customers transport your yummy treats from your store to their homes? It’s time to explore your food packaging manufacturers.
Whether you run a bakery, deli, restaurant, grocery store, or any other business involving food packaging, you must get your product into your customers’ hands as safely as possible. You may also have some past experience with plastic food packaging manufacturers and would like to look at other options.
Drawing on five decades of experience, Inline Plastics has gained valuable insights into what businesses should consider when selecting packaging solutions. In this article, we will guide you through important considerations when choosing a plastic food packaging manufacturer, including quality, sustainability, and other factors.
Qualities to Look for In a Plastic Food Manufacturer
When choosing plastic food containers, you may have many questions about where to start and what to consider. You might think price is the most important variable, but other essential elements must be remembered.
Safety
Safety is always the first factor to consider for anyone working with food, including food packaging. The health of your customers should always be your guiding light when choosing any vendor/manufacturer. You might be selling the best dumplings in town, but nobody will want them if someone gets sick. This is why there are such strict regulations about food packaging in the United States. Compliance in the food packaging industry ensures manufacturers follow specific laws, regulations, and standards that protect food safety and meet FDA requirements. If you’re choosing a foreign packaging manufacturer, remember that they will have standards different from those of the United States, which may be less strict, potentially impacting product safety and quality.
When selecting plastic packaging, remember that it will hold and display food for your valued customers—partner with manufacturers who can detail their established protocols and practices that uphold these important safety regulations.
Quality
You obviously want to provide your customers with a high-quality product, and the right packaging will ensure your food arrives in perfect shape and is as fresh as possible.
If you’re shopping for food packaging, you should request a sample from the manufacturer. This way you can hold the product and determine if it’s strong enough to house your food. Samples will also give you an opportunity to test different packaging options and evaluate how each one displays your food products on store shelves. The right packaging affects visual appeal and can extend shelf life – both factors that directly impact your business’s success. Does the product function as it is supposed to? Does the lid stay closed, or will it possibly pop open and spill piping-hot meatballs everywhere? Nobody wants a mess!
A significant factor to consider is the consistency of that quality. If you do business with a manufacturer and an issue with the company’s product remains unresolved, it could affect your business and relationship, not to mention customer expectations.
Clarity & Sustainability
Imagine working for hours, cutting various fresh fruit for a beautiful tropical platter. Wouldn’t you want to show your hard work? You wouldn’t want to put that bounty of island treasures into an opaque or tinted container. It’s quite simple: the clearer the container, the more your customers can see the product.
You are also probably no stranger to meeting consumers’ changing needs. The same goes for food packaging. Adapting to shifting market demands and consumer preferences for design and quality is essential. Today there are more options to showcase the food with clear, smooth walls. Keep in mind that textured packaging can affect how well customers can see your product.
If a package has a slight tint and isn’t entirely clear, it could be because it’s made with some recycled materials. Food packaging offers different levels of recycled materials, which are tied to your investment in sustainability.
Based on our experience, clear packaging helps products sell better, which is good for the environment. Here are three reasons why:
- Products that sell well reduce waste – they don’t expire on shelves or end up in landfills
- Even when using recycled materials, packaging needs to look professional and let consumers see what they’re buying
- The best environmental choice is packaging that balances two things:
- Using clear, eco-friendly materials that are easy to recycle.
- Making the product attractive enough that people will buy it.
Sustainability is becoming increasingly critical to many in the food industry. It’s not just the products that a manufacturer is producing but how. Are they using recycled materials? Are they practicing sustainable practices in the production of their product?
Remember to ask yourself what your values are in the realm of sustainability. Is using recycled materials important to you? If so, ask the manufacturer if their sustainability claims have been verified and by whom. A neutral third party, such as SCS Global Services, should verify it.
As your business grows, you may want to include more recycled materials in your packaging. However, the increased amount of recycled materials will affect the clarity and consistency of your packaging.
Lead Time
The term “lead time” simply means how long it will take from placing your order to shipping your product. Many different manufacturers have their own “order to ship” lead times, depending on factors such as:
- Having the product in stock nearby.
- Time for their team to prepare the order.
- Transit times once it’s been shipped.
It’s important to note the value of working with a distributor. They will ship, hold, and deliver your order quickly. The distributor that you are working with may already have the items you’re looking for in stock at their local warehouse. If so, lead time can be drastically reduced.
Positive Past Experience
If you’re new to the game, you probably haven’t had a previous relationship with a manufacturer. That’s okay; we’re still helping you along here. But for those who have, did they fulfill your food packaging needs? If so, did you enjoy that business relationship? Were you satisfied with their product? Did you feel they were open and honest about the questions you had? Were they open to feedback? You may want to consider exploring other packaging manufacturers if you answered “No” to these questions.
Fresh Food Packaging Manufacturers
There are so many plastic food packaging manufacturers to choose from, and now you know what to look for in each. At Inline Plastics, we are often asked, “Who else makes plastic food packaging?” As with all questions, we’re happy to answer.
Below, we’ve provided a list of the five largest fresh food packaging manufacturers in the United States, aiming to give you options in your selection process. Each one has a different set of strengths.
Dart
Dart, headquartered in Mason, MI, produces 3,000 products, has 35 locations domestically and internationally, and has 13,000+ employees. In addition to plastic, Dart manufactures a variety of materials, from foam to fiber.
D&W Fine Pack
D&W Fine Pack is a privately held company headquartered in Wood Dale, IL. It has over 3,500 stock products spanning plastics, aluminum, and cutlery.
Genpak
Genpak products include foam containers, plates, plastic bowls, clear deli containers, condiment cups, and eco-friendly packaging. Their corporate headquarters are in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Pactiv
Pactiv’s company history dates back to 1880. It currently has 14,000+ employees across 50+ manufacturing facilities in North America. Its headquarters is in Lake Forest, IL.
Sabert
Headquartered in Sayreville, New Jersey, Sabert is a global manufacturer of food packaging products and solutions. They design, manufacture, and distribute various packaging solutions for food distributors, restaurants and caterers, grocery stores, national food chains, and consumer entertainment.
Sealing the Deal: Next Steps
Now, you have a fresh supply of ingredients to help you choose the right manufacturer for your business.
Remember to approach manufacturers with safety in mind first. Ensure that you buy the products that you see as high-quality and consistently meet your standards. And if you want to show off your food in the best way possible, their packages should be as clear as their business practices.
Your success matters—even if that means pointing you in a different direction. Let’s talk through your options. We’re here to help.
The choice is yours, you brave entrepreneur. We wish you the best of luck on your journey! You’ve got this! Now start your research and get cooking.
