Last Updated on January 25, 2025 by Caesar

Over the last decade, the ready-to-eat meal industry has grown massively, catering to food and nutritional needs for a diverse range of lifestyles. From busy professionals looking for quick hunger busters to individuals looking for specialized diet options to families trying to juggle conflicting schedules, there is a need for ready-to-eat meals in every household.
Even though this rise is a global phenomenon, in the United States, the providers of ready-to-go meals are many, including, but not limited to, Pret a Manger, Whole Foods, Green Chef, and Sun Basket. Apart from these food and beverage-focused businesses, ready meals available in grocery stores such as Walmart or Costco also contribute to the size and competitiveness of the market.
One element is particularly important for running a successful supply chain for ready-to-eat meals: packaging. Effective packaging for this industry is not just about wrapping food to be conveniently delivered or stored on shelves. Rather, effective custom packaging meets the requirements of the products as well as the needs of the customers. At the very least, food packaging must be able to serve the following purposes:
- Preserve freshness
- Be convenient to eat directly from
- Ensure easy stacking and portability
- Be Eco-Friendly to ensure that the high-volume ready-to-eat meal market does not become a factor for increased landfills
- Is aesthetically pleasing and is able to stand out in a crowded market
This article explores in detail why custom food packaging is vital for food & beverage suppliers and how these companies can combine innovative custom packaging solutions to provide a holistic experience to their busy customers.
Why Use Custom Packaging for Ready-to-Eat Meals
Custom packaging allows brands the opportunity to tailor their packaging for their unique product and supply chain needs. The ability to craft unique food boxes, choose the most suitable materials and box inserts, and then finally get the box appropriately branded via print design acts as an important strategic business competency.
Let’s start by looking into food boxes that provide brand differentiation.
Brand Differentiation through Custom Food Packaging
Changing lifestyles and increasingly busy schedules have created a growing demand for convenience and quick-fix options. For the ready-to-eat meal industry, this has translated into rapid growth, subsequently leading to the market becoming very competitive and saturated. Not several brands compete for the same market share through similar product offerings. Differentiating your brand from others in such a market is needed for growth and survival.
Custom packaging for the food and beverage industry, such as food boxes, facilitates this brand differentiation. It allows the product to stand out on physical and online shelves and also impacts the perception of the product’s value. High-quality and eye-catching designs enable packaging to communicate brand values. For example, green packaging with a print of fresh fruits and vegetables allows for a more coherent association with fresh meal kits than clear plastic packaging.
The design and aesthetics of custom food boxes also allow for the differentiation of categories within the brand. A good example is the color-coded food boxes used by Pret a Manger to separate their vegan and vegetarian meals. This packaging reduces the cognitive overload on the customer allowing him/her to scan precisely the category that fits their dietary preferences. This adds to the convenience and quickness customers often experience, and it also showcases how the brand prioritizes the different needs of its customers.
Protecting and Preserving Food Freshness
Customers want fresh and delicious meals and they want them quick. However, food is perishable, and the suppliers must work within dynamic and hyper-fast supply chains to meet the requirements. Food that has perished because of lack of proper sealing, or food that seems to have seeped into the packaging will put the customer off of the brand for a long time. An even more serious situation can arise if the customer eats the perished food and then gets sick. Such harm to human life needs to be avoided at all costs. Once a batch of food is carefully and hygienically prepared with the freshest ingredients, the next job is to customize food packaging to ensure that the quality and freshness of the meals remain intact.
Innovations in custom food packaging have opened several options to protect and extend food’s life. Food boxes can be made with insulated materials and further enhanced with oxygen film barriers. A vacuum seal can be used to supplement food packaging for wet food items such as dips, sauces, or soups.
Ensuring Customer Convenience
Food suppliers need to focus strictly on their target audience. If a ready-to-eat meal supplier is located in a corporate downtown and its customers are mainly professionals who are grabbing quick bites in between meetings, then food packaging that is easy to open and dispose of can be a deciding factor in a purchase.
Creatively designed food boxes can feature microwave-safe materials, resealable closures, portioned compartments, and biodegradable cutlery embedded into the packaging itself. Such features ensure that the ready-to-eat meals are hassle-free and well-suited to the customer’s lifestyle.
Portability of Food Boxes in the Supply Chain
The ready meals have to go through a transit process where they are delivered to each store. Food packaging also needs to be crafted keeping this transit journey in mind.
To enhance their portability, food boxes need to be compact lightweight and balanced when stacked. Such features not only allow the meals to reach the stores without spills and squishes but also make handling easier for the team involved.
Trending Food Packaging Design for Ready-to-Eat Meals
Just like trending lifestyles and industries, custom packaging trends are ever-changing. Expert custom packaging manufacturers endeavor to keep up with these changes to provide the most updated solutions to the customer brands.
We have highlighted some key custom packaging trends for ready-to-eat meals:
- Folding Cartons with Clear Windows
The saying goes, “You eat with your eyes first”. Several ready-to-eat meal suppliers, such as Pret and Starbucks, have adopted this mentality, which they have implemented by opting for transparent windows in the food boxes. This allows the consumers to see, assess, and be tempted by the meal inside. This not only builds trust in the brand but also reduces chances of disappointment in eating food that sounded nice from the description but did not look so.
- Minimalist Designs
Health consciousness and fitness have been a key trend ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of packaging, this means keeping the designs minimal. Minimal fuss, minimal print that might conflict with the idea of “healthy” or “eco-conscious” and minimal wastage.
But brands must remember that minimal does not mean “Stock boxes.” Minimalism needs to be applied as a carefully thought-out design strategy that requires a deep evaluation of brand values, themes, and colors. If you’re looking to understand more about achieving the perfect minimalist packaging design, get in touch with one of The Mailer Box’s experts here: +1 801-783-4566.
- Eco-Friendly Packaging Solutions
The bad news is that the food industry greatly contributes to resource wastage and landfills. The good news, however, is that people and companies are becoming more and more aware of the problem and are making conscious decisions to mitigate the impacts of their actions.
One of the many proposed solutions, already in action, is eco-friendly packaging solutions. These include food boxes that are made of biodegradable or recyclable materials, are easy to dispose of, and contain minimum or no toxic elements that can seep into the food itself.
Even though much progress has been made, the use of eco-friendly food packaging still has a long way to go.
- Compact and User-Friendly Meal Kits
One popular sub-category of ready-to-eat meals is meal kits, which involve some processing or cooking to be done by the customer. This is a hybrid food category where some parts of the meal come prepared while others have to be put together, giving the customer a sense of eating a home-cooked meal.
Such customers also look for compact, wastage, and minimum-hassle packaging that includes all ingredients effectively separated from each other.
- Modular Packaging
Another growing trend is stackable and/or interlocking packaging designs, allowing customers to safely store and transport several meals simultaneously.
The growth of custom food packaging is as big a convenience as ready-to-eat meals. The packaging industry’s focus on innovation continues to present creative and cutting-edge ways for food suppliers to build a recognizable brand and deliver their products safely.
As an established food brand or even as a start-up, you need to team up with a custom packaging manufacturer who can be a strategic asset in the growing market because one thing is for sure, the future of food packaging is made of two things: innovation and convenience.