Cardboard trays for fruit and vegetables

The tray is the first thing the shopper touches. It holds the produce, presents it, takes the cold of the store and the shaking of transport, and on top of that it has to match what the retail chain now demands in materials. This guide explains which cardboard and fibre trays actually exist, which produce each one suits, how they are closed with film and how to choose without overspending or falling short.

At Fontanet Group we have spent 14 years supplying fresh-produce packaging from Fraga, in the heart of the Bajo Cinca, with a team that adds up to more than 30 years in the sector. We see the tray from both sides: the packer who needs it to run through the machine and add up on cost, and the sales side that needs it to look right on shelf. Almost every tray problem that reaches us comes from deciding one of those without looking at the other.

What exactly is a cardboard tray for fruit and vegetables?

By tray we mean the open-topped primary or secondary pack that holds the produce in its final selling or shipping position. It can be a compact board punnet for 500 g of strawberries, a moulded pulp tray with cavities for six peaches, a corrugated tray acting as a base inside the box, or a sealable plastic tray for ready-to-eat lines. They all do the same three things: contain, protect and present.

What separates them is how they weight those three. A tray designed for the shelf puts presentation and print first. One designed for the pallet puts stacking strength and stability first. One designed for delicate produce puts cushioning and a close fit to the fruit size first. When a single tray is asked to do all three at once, you normally either overpay or lose produce.

The materials we work with, one by one

Our tray range covers cardboard, moulded pulp, PET and PP for fresh produce, ready-to-eat lines, meat, dairy and catering. They are not five equivalent alternatives: each one solves a particular kind of problem well and the others badly.

Compact board: the retail punnet

This is the tray you see most on the prepared-fruit shelf: clean walls, well-defined corners, a surface that prints properly. It is die-cut flat and erected, which makes it very efficient in transport and storage, because it travels flat and takes almost no room until it is used. It is the natural choice when the tray is part of the brand: strawberries, blueberries, cherries, cherry tomatoes, soft fruit in general.

• Excellent printing base: logo, seasonal message, origin, traceability.
• Travels flat: lower transport cost and less warehouse space than a pre-formed pack.
• Behaves well dry and at ambient temperature; sensitive to prolonged humidity if untreated.
• Recycled with paper whenever the coating allows it.

Corrugated board: when strength is what matters

Corrugated adds a fluted layer between two liners, and that flute is what gives stiffness and stacking strength at very low weight. In fresh produce it appears mainly as a shipping tray, as a base inside the box, or as a display tray that reaches the shelf as it is and goes straight out without unpacking. It is also the material of the boxes that close the set, so tray and box coordinate directly: same material, same recycling stream, modular dimensions that fit the pallet.

If your problem is that the load crushes on the pallet, the answer is almost always here and not in beefing up the primary tray. We cover it in more detail in the cardboard and paper section.

Moulded pulp: the one that adapts to the fruit

Moulded pulp is formed in a mould from fibre in suspension, usually recycled fibre. That lets it do something folded board cannot: take the shape of the produce. Individual cavities, reinforcing ribs, curved walls. The fruit sits in its own recess, does not move, and impacts are absorbed by the fibre structure instead of by the skin of the fruit.

It has another, less obvious advantage that matters a great deal in cold storage: the fibre absorbs free water and releases it slowly, so it prevents the condensation against the fruit that causes staining and mould. That is why it keeps gaining ground in peaches, nectarines, pears, apples, avocados and kiwis. We carry two families: moulded pulp trays and moulded pulp trays type 2.

• Fits the produce size: less movement, less rubbing, less waste.
• Manages cold-store humidity better than any other fibre material.
• Recyclable with paper and compostable under industrial conditions.
• A natural product image, well aligned with what retail asks for today.
• The trade-off: it takes more warehouse volume, because it travels stacked, not flat.

Kraft: the same tray, a different visual reading

Kraft is not a separate technical category, it is a finish: unbleached fibre with a natural brown tone. It is used when the message is minimally processed, local or organic produce, and it works particularly well combined with a transparent window so the product shows. Technically it behaves like the compact board it comes from; what changes is how it reads on shelf, and that it takes a narrower printing range, because the background is no longer white.

PET and PP: when you need transparency or a barrier

Not everything is solved with fibre. When the produce has to be fully visible, when you need a guaranteed leak-tight heat seal, or when you work under modified atmosphere, the plastic tray is still the right tool. That is standard in ready-to-eat lines, meat, dairy and catering, which is why our food tray range also covers PET and PP. The sensible approach is not to rule them out on principle, but to use them where they add value and not where they only add cost and waste.

And expanded polystyrene, honestly

The EPS tray was the fresh-produce standard for decades, and it is still around. It is on its way out under regulatory and retail pressure, and in most fresh-produce applications moulded pulp replaces it without drama. In our catalogue EPS is there to protect fragile goods — electronics, furniture, e-commerce, removals — not as a fruit tray. If you pack in EPS today and are looking at alternatives, the normal conversation is moulded pulp, and it is worth running a trial before committing a whole season.

Formats, dimensions and where to start defining them

Tray dimensions are not chosen by looking at the tray, they are worked out backwards. First the produce size and the number of pieces or weight per selling unit. From there comes the usable internal dimension. Adding thicknesses gives the external dimension, and that external dimension has to fit the box, and the box the pallet. Skip this order and you get the most expensive packaging mistake there is: a perfect tray that leaves dead space in every box and has you paying to ship air all season.

1. Define the content: weight or number of pieces per tray, and the real size, not nominal.
2. Work out the usable internal dimension with the produce laid out as it really will be.
3. Add thicknesses and tolerances to reach the external dimension.
4. Check how many trays fit per box with no slack and no forcing.
5. Check how many boxes fit per pallet layer and how many layers the stack takes.
6. Only then look at the standard catalogue: very often one of them fits.

Which tray for which produce

Soft fruit and delicate small-size produce

Strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry. Expensive, fragile, fast-rotating produce that also needs ventilation to avoid moisture build-up. Here the compact board punnet or the kraft window box rules, with ventilation perforations and print that supports the price. The tray does not only protect: it is the selling argument.

Stone and pome fruit

Peach, nectarine, flat peach, pear, apple. Large sizes, skin sensitive to rubbing and seasons concentrated into a few weeks. This is moulded pulp territory, with cavities: each piece in its own recess, no fruit-to-fruit contact and the fibre absorbing the impact. Combined with fruit trays inside the box, it is the configuration that leaves the least waste.

Cold-stored vegetables and field produce

Tomato, pepper, courgette, cucumber. Less fragile, but far longer in the cold and at high humidity. What to watch here is condensation and the pack losing stiffness: either treated board, or moulded pulp, or a plastic tray if it is also going to be sealed. Untreated compact board in long cold storage causes problems.

Ready-to-eat and cut produce

Salads, cut fruit, ready-to-use vegetables. Here the pack stops being just a container and becomes part of the preservation process: it needs leak-tightness, reliable sealing and very often modified atmosphere. Sealable tray, barrier film and a tray sealer. This is the case where machine and tray are chosen together, never separately.

Export produce and long shipments

When the journey gets longer, every small weakness is multiplied. Stacking strength, pallet stability and tolerance to changes in temperature and humidity all matter more. The combination that works best is a moulded pulp or treated board tray inside a properly dimensioned corrugated box, with wrapping that holds the load without crushing it.

Customisation: printing, window and finishes

A printed tray does a job no other packaging element does as well: it occupies the space the consumer is looking at at the exact moment of deciding. You can go from a single flat ink with your logo — cheap, fast, enough in many cases — to full colour with finishes, a die-cut window and varnishes. What is worth settling before you start is the number of inks, whether the tray has a window and whether sealed film will run over it, because that last point governs the finish of the sealing area.

• Single-ink printing: brand identity at minimum extra cost.
• Full-colour printing: campaigns, varieties, designations of origin.
• Die-cut window: shows the produce without giving up printed surface.
• Coding and traceability: batch, date and origin, on the tray or on the label.
• Finishes: varnishes, matt and gloss, embossing. They add perceived value.

From tray to closed pack: the machinery

A tray without a machine is half a solution. Closing is what determines shelf life, leak-tightness and the real pace of the line, and it is where you most notice whether the pack was chosen with the process in mind or only with the produce. These are the machines we supply for tray work.

If volume does not yet justify an automatic machine, the semi-automatic modified atmosphere tray sealer covers short runs and a wide range of references well, which is exactly what tends to sink the output of a badly sized automatic line.

The full equipment catalogue is in the machinery section, with the technical sheet for each model.

Sustainability and regulation, without the spin

Pressure on single-use plastic packaging has pushed half the fresh-produce chain towards fibre, and that has been good for cardboard and pulp trays. Even so, do not confuse the material with the outcome: a fibre tray with a plastic coating that is hard to separate can end up worse than a mono-material plastic tray that does have a recycling stream. What decides end of life is the whole construction, not the label.

• Cardboard and pulp without plastic coating: recycled with paper.
• Moulded pulp: also compostable under industrial conditions.
• Food contact: always ask for the declaration of conformity of the specific format.
• Recycled fibre and certified fibre: available depending on format; ask when ordering.
• Less material is not always better: if the tray falls short, the produce lost weighs far more than the grammage saved.

We work with forest certification and with the extended producer responsibility scheme; the documents are available in About us.

How to choose, in eight decisions

1. Produce and real size, with the weight or number of pieces per selling unit.
2. The full journey: how many days, at what temperature and at what humidity.
3. Does it need sealing? If yes, tray and machine are chosen together.
4. Does the produce need to be visible? Window, transparency or neither.
5. Printing: how many inks and what role the tray plays in the brand.
6. Logistics fit: trays per box, boxes per layer, layers per pallet.
7. End of life and the requirements of your customer, which often outrank the regulation.
8. Annual volume and seasonality: this decides stock standard versus own format.

Frequently asked questions about cardboard trays

Why buy your trays from Fontanet Group

We are in Fraga, in the middle of the Bajo Cinca and a step away from the Segria, which is where a good part of this country stone fruit is packed. That means we know the seasons from the inside: when demand spikes, which format falls short in August and what happens when a line stops at peak. We have been at this for 14 years, with a team that adds up to more than 30 years in the sector.

• Trays and machines under one roof: the pack is defined with the process, not against it.
• Stock of the usual formats and made-to-order manufacturing for anything outside the standard.
• Advice with the produce in front of us: samples and a trial before closing a season.
• Service across the peninsula, with next-day delivery in the area.
• Paperwork in order: food suitability, forest certification and the EPR scheme.