If you own a business that sells food, whether it’s a takeaway, food that’s delivered or items sold in a shop, packaging is extremely important. Proper packaging ensures your item arrives at the customer’s home in top condition and also means that everything is kept as hygienic as possible. Here are some tips for ensuring you choose the right food packaging.
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Know The Laws Around Food Packaging
In order to ensure safe packaging of food and hygienic conditions, you need to research the laws around packaging food. Food can’t simply be placed in any box or bag.Anything that will make contact with the food needs to be:
- Marked ‘for food contact’ – which is usually written on the box or has a symbol of a wine glass and fork
- If not marked, has a declaration of compliance from your packaging supplier
- Depending on the type of business you run, you may need to follow strict food labelling laws. For example, if you’re supplying pre-packaged foods for shops to sell
Food packaging laws need to be strictly followed to ensure safety for your customers and to make sure you don’t fall foul of the law.
Invest In Good Quality Food Packaging
Even if you run a small business, such as making birthday cakes from your home kitchen, it is worth investing in good quality food packaging.
Good quality packaging adds a professional presentation to your food, and it means your items can be transported and arrive in perfect condition. For example, if you are selling sandwiches, these are often shoved into bags and can end up looking squashed and unappetising if wrapped in cling film. Using plastic sandwich wedge boxes means they are protected from knocks and stay looking fresh and delicious.
Before you start supplying food, you should find the right packaging for the items you want to sell. Start researching wholesale food packaging companies and work out what kind of packaging will work best for your specific needs.
Consider Ease Of Transport Too
Whether it’ll be customers taking the food home, or you taking items to their house, you need to consider the ease of transporting food in your chosen containers. It’s worth buying some paper bags or similar, especially if you sell hot food, so people can easily get their food home.
Factor In The Cost
Small businesses will often have slim profit margins, so when you price up your products, perhaps looking at the average costs of takeaways to ensure you hit the right price point, you should also think about the cost of packaging. In general, the more you buy in bulk, the lower the cost per item, so it’s worth stocking up.
There are many small businesses that sell food, from bakers to corner shops and takeaways. One challenge they’ll face is how to package their food and ensure it arrives at its destination looking and tasting great. That’s why it’s worth investing in decent packaging that is designed specifically for the food items you’re selling and ensuring you meet food standards.