Maintaining produce quality and safety while reducing post-harvest losses is a primary objective for growers, packing houses, and repackers. Packaging, including corrugated trays, helps packers meet those objectives by protecting produce through the supply chain. Corrugated, the predominant material for produce containers, is inherently strong and can be made into several tray styles, including reinforced corner trays, telescoping trays and lids, and shelf-ready display trays. Die-cut produce trays are easy to use, cost-effective, sustainable, and, most importantly, protect produce during handling and transport. Here are five ways corrugated trays protect produce.
1. Cushion Produce Against Shock and Impact
The main sources of damage to produce during transportation are mechanical impacts and vibration. Die-cut produce trays are made from corrugated board, consisting of a fluted medium sandwiched between two linerboard sheets. Corrugated board gives the tray a rigid outer structure, and the flutes provide cushioning.
Tray design also helps keep the load organized. Dividers, cells, or fitted openings can separate individual items, and sizing the tray to the product limits movement inside the package. Less shifting means fewer opportunities for produce to collide, rub, or press against adjacent items.
2. Support Stacked Loads
Corrugated is inherently strong by design, and proper manufacturing preserves that strength. Tray performance still depends on manufacturing quality control, the properties of the medium and liner, machine precision, human factors, and, in palleted loads, stacking patterns. Because of its unique flute structure, the box resists vertical compression and buckling. This makes it highly suitable for stacked loads. Produce packages often spend part of the supply chain stacked on pallets or in storage. Corrugated trays can be designed with reinforced corners, doubled walls, or other structural features that provide additional strength to resist compression from the weight above it. The required strength depends on the produce, tray style, stack height, and distribution conditions.
A tray that holds its shape also supports pallet load stability. Consistent dimensions create a more uniform stack, while reinforced edges and corners help keep layers aligned. This reduces the chance that a weakened tray will distort and affect the packages around it.
3. Maintain Airflow and Cooling
Fresh produce may need heat removed after harvest and controlled temperatures maintained during storage and shipment. Vent openings in corrugated trays let cooled air move around the product and through stacked loads when the openings stay aligned, reinforcing the container's ability to protect the produce. The placement and size of those openings must allow heat built up by respiration to escape and provide sufficient, uniform airflow without removing more board than the tray can structurally tolerate.
Ventilation can also help prevent moisture from becoming trapped around the produce. Depending on the application, the corrugated board may need a moisture-resistant treatment or construction to retain strength in humid or refrigerated conditions. Airflow, board performance, and stacking strength, therefore, need to be considered together rather than as separate packaging requirements.
4. Reduce Exposure to Contamination
Single-use corrugated trays provide a clean package for each load of produce. Unlike reusable containers, they do not return through the supply chain carrying soil, plant material, or residue from a previous shipment. Of course, packers still need to protect unused trays from moisture, dust, pests, and other contamination before packing.
Tray walls, lids, and product-separating features can also reduce direct contact with handling surfaces and adjacent items during distribution. Packaging does not replace sanitation or food-safety controls, but it adds a physical layer between the produce and parts of the handling environment.
5. Reduce Handling From Field to Retail Display
Every transfer creates another opportunity for produce to be dropped, compressed, or handled roughly. Some corrugated trays can remain with the product through packing, transport, and retail display, reducing the need to unload and repack individual items at intermediate points. Shelf-ready tray styles can be opened or placed directly in the display area when they fit the retailer’s process.
Hand holes, reinforced edges, and load-bearing features can make loaded trays easier to lift and move while helping the package retain its shape. These details should match the packed weight, product dimensions, and expected handling method. A tray designed around the full distribution route protects the produce while making each transfer more controlled.
Design Corrugated Trays Around the Produce and Supply Chain
Atlas Container designs and manufactures high-quality custom corrugated trays for agricultural applications. Our in-house corrugating, printing, die-cutting, and converting capabilities let us develop the tray structure, board grade, ventilation openings, hand holes, dividers, and printed graphics to meet your specific needs.
For produce applications, that means we can engineer corrugated trays around required stacking strength, airflow, moisture exposure, packing process, and retail presentation. We can also provide prototypes before production, letting growers, packers, and distributors review the tray’s fit, proportions, and function before finalizing the design.
Contact Atlas Container to discuss a corrugated tray designed for your produce and supply chain.
