Custom Food Packaging

French Fry Boxes

Bespoke french Fry Boxes manufactured to order, with material and finish chosen around how the product ships.

Minimum order: 100 units
Production: 3–5 business days
Construction: folding carton
Delivery: US, UK, Canada, Australia

French Fry Boxes shown as a finished custom-printed pack

No obligation

Price this format

Name, email, phone and what you are packing and the volumes you run. Attach artwork if you have it. We reply with a specification and a written price, usually within one business day.

What french fry boxes have to cope with

French Fry Boxes hold hot fries that need to stay crisp and be gripped one-handed. That is the starting point for the specification, because fries want airflow, not insulation. An open scoop or a vented carton beats a sealed one every time.

In service they are used for quick-service counters and delivery, where the gap between fryer and eating is five to twenty minutes.

Where french fry boxes are actually used

French Fry Boxes are specified for quick-service counters and delivery, where the gap between fryer and eating is five to twenty minutes. Fries want airflow, not insulation. An open scoop or a vented carton beats a sealed one every time.

Quick-service counters and delivery, where the gap between fryer and eating is five to twenty minutes
Shelf display in specialty retail
Subscription and gift sets
E-commerce inner packaging

The substrate for french fry boxes

A 14pt to 16pt grease-resistant board. Nothing heavier is needed because fries weigh almost nothing.

The options we would consider for this format are below; fries want airflow, not insulation. An open scoop or a vented carton beats a sealed one every time.

12pt SBS paperboard
14pt SBS paperboard
16pt SBS paperboard
18pt kraft board
recycled CCNB board

Printing french fry boxes

The visible surface in use is the outside of a scoop held at chest height, so put the brand high on the panel.

Offset lithography, Digital press, Flexography are all available for this format. Run length usually decides which is cheapest: digital removes the plate cost on short quantities, offset and flexo overtake it at volume.

Finishing french fry boxes

The visible surface in use is the outside of a scoop held at chest height, so put the brand high on the panel.

The finishes below are quoted line by line. Each is an additional pass, so dropping one is a real saving rather than a rounding difference.

Gloss lamination
Matte lamination
Soft-touch lamination
Spot UV
Foil stamping
Embossing
Debossing
Aqueous coating

Sizing french fry boxes

Scoop and carton styles from a 3 oz side up to a 12 oz sharing size.

Send the contents rather than a box size. Operators try to keep fries hot by closing them in, which is exactly what makes them soggy.

Holding french fry boxes before service

Fries steam themselves soft in a box with no airflow, arriving limp even though they were crisp at the fryer.

Paperboard also absorbs moisture from the air until it equalises with its surroundings. If stock sits more than about six weeks in unconditioned space, a moisture-resistant coating is worth its small premium.

Preparing artwork

Supply artwork on the dieline we send you, with 3 mm bleed past every trim edge and all text held 4 mm inside the fold lines.

Supply a print-ready PDF or vector file with fonts outlined and images at 300 dpi. Our prepress team checks every file before a proof is issued. The check that catches most files is type sitting too close to a crease, which is easier to move at layout than at proof.

How an order runs

The useful starting point is the product, not the pack. Give us its measurements and the quantity, and we work the folding carton outward from there.

A dieline template follows, sized to your product. Prepress checks your artwork against it and issues a proof; nothing runs until you sign that off.

What buyers get wrong with french fry boxes

Operators try to keep fries hot by closing them in, which is exactly what makes them soggy.

The rest of these come up often enough across the format to be worth stating plainly.

Specifying board weight without saying how hot or greasy the contents are.
Forgetting that a pack carried at an angle in a courier bag behaves differently to one on a counter.
Choosing a vented lid for a dish that needs to stay hot, or a sealed one for a dish that needs to stay crisp.
Ordering a year of stock that then sits through a humid summer.

Sampling before you order

A plain structural sample is the cheapest way to find a fit problem — far cheaper than finding it across a full run.

Sample costs are normally credited against the production order.

Reference

French Fry Boxes at a specification level

Product	French Fry Boxes
Category	Custom Food Packaging
Construction	Die-cut, creased and seam-glued
Board thickness	12pt – 18pt depending on product weight
Ships as	Flat-packed, glued one seam
Materials	12pt SBS paperboard, 14pt SBS paperboard, 16pt SBS paperboard, 18pt kraft board
Printing	Offset lithography, Digital press, Flexography
Finishes	Gloss lamination, Matte lamination, Soft-touch lamination, Spot UV, Foil stamping
Minimum order	Minimum order is 100 units on any format, and unit cost falls sharply as the quantity rises.
Lead time	3 to 5 business days after artwork approval
Shipping	Across the US, UK, Canada and Australia

What you get

Where this holds up on a line

Sized to the contents

Scoop and carton styles from a 3 oz side up to a 12 oz sharing size.

What goes wrong in service

Fries steam themselves soft in a box with no airflow, arriving limp even though they were crisp at the fryer.

Where it is used

Specified for quick-service counters and delivery, where the gap between fryer and eating is five to twenty minutes.

What decides the job

Fries want airflow, not insulation. An open scoop or a vented carton beats a sealed one every time.

This format sits in our custom food packaging range, alongside 33 other made-to-order formats.

Answers

Running french fry boxes: common questions

Specification, minimums and lead times for french fry boxes.

Should a fry box be open or closed?

Open or vented. Fries go soft from their own steam, not from cold air, so trapping heat is counterproductive. For delivery, a vented carton keeps them crisper than a sealed one.

Are these food-contact compliant?

We specify food-contact compliant boards and inks where the pack touches food directly. Tell us whether contact is direct or through a liner for french fry boxes, because it changes which stocks are available to you.

How do you stop grease showing through?

A grease-resistant coating or a greaseproof liner. Untreated board will always strike through eventually with hot, oily food — that is a property of the material rather than a quality fault, and it is inexpensive to design out.

Do french fry boxes arrive flat or assembled?

Flat and glued along one seam, so they pop open on your packing line. That keeps freight cost down considerably compared with a pre-assembled structure.

Can I see a sample first?

Yes. We can send a plain unprinted sample so you can check the fit and structure, or a printed prototype for colour and finish. Sample costs are normally credited against the production order. Worth running a few through your actual line rather than checking them by hand: fill speed and hot contents find fit problems that a desk check does not.

Can you match packaging we already use?

Send the current specification or a physical sample and we will quote to match it rather than proposing an alternative you would then have to re-approve internally. Tell us the coating on the pack you are matching too. Grease and moisture resistance are not visible in a sample and they change which stocks we can quote.

Where do you deliver?

All 50 US states, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, on the same timeline everywhere: 3 to 5 business days of production after artwork approval, then 5 to 7 business days in transit. Every run is made to order and shipped directly to your address rather than pulled from stock, so you receive current production rather than whatever has been sitting in a warehouse. Freight is costed separately by weight, volume and destination. If stock is going into a kitchen or a service counter rather than a warehouse, tell us — case sizes that a single person can lift and store matter more there than pallet efficiency.

Can I order french fry boxes in a custom size?

Every run is cut to your dimensions — there are no stock sizes here. Send the product measurements rather than a box size and we will build the folding carton around them, then send a dieline template you can design onto.

What happens after I approve the quote?

We issue a dieline template sized to your product, prepress checks your artwork against it, and a proof comes back for sign-off. Nothing runs until you approve that proof, and folding cartons then take 3 to 5 business days.

Can you hold the specification for repeat orders?

Yes. Once a first run is approved we hold the board, structure, dimensions, print method and finishes against your account, so a reorder references the same specification exactly rather than being re-derived. The board and coating are held together, so a reorder cannot quietly arrive on a stock with different grease resistance.

Do you offer recycled or recyclable options?

Recycled grades are available across most of the substrates we run for folding cartons. Recycled content, kerbside recyclability and certified compostability are three different claims though, so tell us which one you intend to print.

What file format should I send artwork in?

A print-ready PDF or a vector file, with fonts outlined and any raster images at 300 dpi at final size. We supply the dieline to design onto, and prepress checks bleed, safe area and crease clearance before issuing a proof. The dieline we supply carries the crease positions, so keeping type clear of a crease is easier to solve at layout than at proof.

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