White SBS cardstock
A bright, smooth sheet. Photography, gradients and fine type all hold their detail, and colors sit where the proof says they will.
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- Food Trays
Open-top trays · Grease-resistant board
Custom Food Trays
Open paperboard trays printed to your artwork and creased for the food you actually serve — fries, wings, loaded nachos, a burger and a side. Built for counters, baskets, food trucks and festival lines.
- 500 piece minimum
- Shallow or deep walls
- Free digital proof
- Ships flat-packed
From $0.50 per trayVolume pricing from 500 units · final price on your quote
500
Minimum per design
Volume pricing from 1,000
6–7 days
Standard production
After you approve the proof
Free
Dieline and proof
Built around your item
Worldwide
Tracked shipping
Quoted with the job
In short
Custom food trays are open-top paperboard trays that hold fries, wings, nachos, a burger or a full combo on a counter, in a basket or on the walk home. The Cone Sleeves prints them to your artwork on kraft, white SBS or recycled board in any size, from 500 pieces per design, with a free digital proof and 6–7 business day production.
Why shops order food trays from us
Corners that hold
Trays are glued or foot-locked at all four corners, so the walls stay square under a hot load instead of splaying open on the counter.
Walls sized to the food
Loose food like fries and wings needs a taller wall than a burger does. We set the depth to what you serve, not to a stock catalog size.
Grease stays in
A coated inner face keeps oil from wicking through and marking the outside, which is what makes a tray look tired within minutes.
Print where they look
Customers stare at the inside base of a tray for the length of a meal. We print it, not just the outside walls nobody sees.
Nests for storage
Assembled trays of the same size nest together, so a busy counter can keep a working stack within arm’s reach of the pass.
One tray, several items
A single well-chosen size usually covers most of a menu, which keeps your minimum spread over one design instead of four.
Printed work
Food Trays we have printed
Every run below started as somebody's artwork on plain board. Yours is quoted the same way, whatever the shape.
Specifications
Everything this order includes
These are the options we quote against. If you need something outside them, ask — most custom sizes and finishes are possible, and the quote will say so plainly.
| Tray sizes | Snack, single-serve, combo and sharing sizes; any footprint cut to your menu item |
|---|---|
| Wall style | Four-corner glued, foot-lock self-assembly or double wall; 1 in serving depth up to 2 in walls |
| Board | White SBS cardstock, natural kraft or recycled board, in heavier calipers for trays |
| Grease resistance | Coated inner face for fried and sauced food; uncoated for dry snacks |
| Printing and finish | Full-color CMYK, single-color logo or Pantone spot colors; gloss or matte lamination, spot UV, foil or uncoated |
| Minimum order | 500 pieces per design, with volume pricing from 1,000 |
| Turnaround | 6–7 business days after proof approval; 3–4 day rush on request |
| Artwork | PDF, AI or EPS at 300 dpi with 3 mm bleed — we set up the tray dieline free |
What a food tray has to hold up to
An open tray is judged in the ten minutes between the fryer and the last bite. It has to take food straight out of hot oil, sit flat without spreading at the corners, and still look presentable when somebody photographs it. None of that comes from the print. It comes from wall height, the corner lock and the coating on the inside face.
Wall height decides what stays in. A shallow tray of about an inch is a serving platform: a burger, a wrap, a chicken sandwich with a few fries beside it. Go to two inches and it becomes a container for loose food — fries, tenders, nachos, popcorn chicken — that will not spill when a customer carries it at an angle. If your food moves, ask for the taller wall.
Grease is the other half. Fried food releases oil for as long as it stays hot, and uncoated board wicks it outward until the printed face goes translucent. A coated inner face stops that. For a combo pairing a sandwich with a side, our open trays built for burgers and fries use the same construction with a shorter wall.
Four-corner, foot-lock or double wall?
Three constructions cover almost every food tray, and the difference is about who assembles it and how much weight it carries.
- Four-corner glued — glued in production and ready to use on arrival. Fastest at the counter, strongest under a wet load, and the cleanest look because there are no visible tabs. It takes the most storage space, since assembled trays nest rather than lie flat.
- Foot-lock (self-assembly) — ships flat and a locking tab folds the corners into place in a couple of seconds. It stores in a fraction of the space, which is why food trucks and event vendors pick it, and why large sizes are cheaper to ship this way.
- Double wall — the wall is folded back on itself for a thicker rim and a stiffer tray. This is what you want for heavy sharing portions, or anywhere a tray gets picked up by one edge with a full load in it.
If you serve at a counter and store on a shelf behind it, glued is usually right. If you truck your stock to a site every weekend, foot-lock wins on volume alone.
Which tray for which menu item
Fries and wings want depth and a small footprint, so the food piles rather than spreads and stays hot longer. Nachos and loaded fries want the same depth with a wider base, because toppings need surface area and a customer needs somewhere to get a fork in. Sampling trays go the other way: small, shallow, and cheap enough to hand out by the hundred.
Some items are better served by a tray shaped for them than by a general-purpose rectangle. A long, narrow tray keeps a dog and its toppings from sliding sideways, which is exactly what our printed hot dog trays hold in place during a rush.
Dessert is its own problem. Warm waffles and churros give off steam as well as grease, so they need an open tray rather than a closed box that traps it. Our custom waffle trays for dessert counters are cut for exactly that.
Cones are the exception to all of this, because they cannot be laid down at all. When a customer is carrying more than one back to a table, an ice cream cone tray with cut-out holders does a job no flat tray can.
Board, print and finish for open trays
Trays run on the same three stocks as the rest of our range, in a heavier caliper. White SBS cardstock gives the brightest base, so photographic art and pale brand colors hold true. Natural kraft reads as artisan and hides grease marks better than white does, though ink shifts warmer on it and light tones disappear. Recycled board sits between the two with a visibly reclaimed texture, and it is the easy answer where a venue has a packaging policy to satisfy.
Print is full-color CMYK, a single-color logo, or Pantone spot colors when an exact brand color matters more than photographic range. Finishes are gloss or matte lamination, spot UV, foil stamping, or uncoated. One caution specific to trays: laminate keeps a printed inside base looking clean under hot food, but makes the tray harder to recycle. If disposal matters more, take uncoated kraft and keep the artwork bold rather than detailed.
Our guide to board weights and coating choices walks through the trade-off in more detail.
Where these are used
- Fries, tenders and wings
- Loaded fries and nachos
- Burger and side combos
- Street food and night markets
- Festival and stadium concessions
- In-store sampling stations
- Food truck window service
- Cinema and arcade snack counters
Not sure on size?
Send a sample or a photo with a ruler beside it and we cut the dieline to fit. There is no charge for the dieline or the digital proof.
Ask a questionHow the order runs
- You send sizes, quantity and artwork, or just a photo of the item.
- We build the dieline and come back with a written price.
- You approve a digital proof with your artwork laid on it.
- We print, cut and ship, with tracking on the carton.
Materials and printing
Board and print, side by side
Three boards and three ways to print on them. Every combination below is quoted the same way, so the choice is about how you want the packaging to feel in the hand.
Choose the board
Natural kraft
Unbleached brown board. Ink sits into the surface rather than on top of it, which mutes bright colors and reads as craft and small-batch.
Recycled board
Post-consumer fiber with a slight fleck through it. It takes a one or two color mark well and tells the customer what it is without a claim printed on it.
Choose how it prints
Full-color CMYK
Four process inks. The right choice when the artwork is a photograph, an illustration or anything with a gradient in it.
Single-color logo
One ink on plain board. It is the least expensive way to print a run and, on kraft, it is often the better looking one.
Pantone spot colors
A mixed ink matched to a Pantone reference. Use it when a brand color has to be exact across every reprint.
Food Trays designer
Design your food trays
Build the specification for food trays step by step — size, board, print and finish — and send it for a quote. Five short steps, no account.
Questions
Food Trays: common questions
What sizes do custom food trays come in?
There is no fixed catalog. We cut the footprint and the wall height to the item you serve, from small sampling trays up to sharing sizes for a table. Send a photo of a full portion next to a ruler, or the item dimensions, and we build the dieline around it at no charge.
Which tray depth suits fries, wings or nachos?
Loose food needs a wall of about an inch and a half to two inches so it piles instead of spilling when the tray tilts. Nachos and loaded fries want that depth with a wider base for toppings. A burger or a wrap only needs about an inch, since nothing rolls.
Will a paper food tray hold up to hot, greasy food?
Yes, with a coated inner face. Fried food keeps releasing oil while it is hot, and on uncoated board that oil wicks outward until the printed surface darkens. The coating keeps it in. Heavier caliper board and a double wall add stiffness for wet or heavy loads.
Can one tray design cover several menu items?
Usually. Most operators land on one mid-size tray that takes a burger with fries, a chicken basket and a loaded portion, then add a second small size for sides or sampling. Two sizes covering a whole menu spreads your minimum across fewer designs than four specialized trays.
Do you make compartment or divided food trays?
We do, as a die-cut variation on the same construction. Be aware the divider costs you usable volume and adds a fold that can trap sauce. Many operators get the same result more cheaply by using one open tray and a paper liner to separate wet from dry.
Are custom food trays recyclable?
Uncoated kraft, white and recycled board go into the paper stream. Laminated trays resist grease far better but are harder to recycle, and any tray heavily soiled with oil is usually rejected anyway. If disposal is the priority, choose uncoated and we will design around the reduced grease resistance.
Do trays arrive assembled or flat?
Both are available. Glued four-corner trays arrive formed and ready to use, which suits a fixed counter. Foot-lock trays ship flat and fold up in seconds, which is what mobile and event operators want because a case holds several times as many.
Can I order food trays for a one-off event?
Yes. Five hundred pieces per design is the minimum, which is a realistic quantity for a festival weekend or a product launch. Production runs 6–7 business days after you approve the proof, with a 3–4 business day rush available if your date is tight.
Related products
Often ordered alongside
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Tell us your cone, we will price the sleeve
Send your size, quantity and artwork. You get a written quote and a free digital proof before anything goes to press.