When food brands think about sustainable packaging, they usually picture the parts which touch the food: the compostable tray, the recyclable wrapper and the bag the product is in.
That all matters, and there are strict standards governing it, but there is a second layer that decides whether the food arrives cold, dry and intact, and it’s the one that tends to get the least consideration: the box that carries everything else.
That box is where we come in.
We specialise in making outer packaging rather than the packaging that comes in direct contact with the food itself. Getting this right leads to the emergence of completely different problems than most "sustainable food packaging" advice is written about.
This is a guide to that outer layer. More specifically, what sustainable actually means for it, where the eco options genuinely perform and where they get tested.
The layer people forget: the box around the food
We’ll start by being clear about exactly which layer we are talking about.
If you buy six bags of peanuts, we don’t make the bag the nuts themselves come in; we make the box that holds the six bags. In the trade, that is called “tertiary” or “secondary” packaging; the outer carton that protects the product, groups it for transport and gets it through the supply chain. This is distinct from the primary packaging that’s in direct contact with the food itself.
That distinction has a practical consequence.
Australia's food-contact rules, administered by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), govern the materials that actually touch food. Our boxes are a layer out from that, so direct food-contact compliance is not generally the binding constraint on what we make.
When a job genuinely requires it, we can print with food-grade ink, but in the majority of cases there is something between our box and the food, so the important questions are: will the box survive the cold room, hold the weight of the food and keep moisture out?
What "sustainable" actually means for a food outer box
It is worth being specific about what “sustainable” means in the context of food packaging.
For the outer box, three things are important:
- The board itself. All of our cardboard is FSC-certified, which means the fibres used can be traced back to responsibly managed forests under the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) chain-of-custody scheme. It is a specific, audited claim, not just a green sticker.
- Recyclability. Plain corrugated board is recyclable in most of Australia, as long as the box is not laminated or heavily coated. This is one reason the finish on a food box is a decision worth making with care.
- Right-sizing. A box that’s properly matched to its contents uses less board, needs less void fill and can fit more into the same delivery run, lowering emissions. It is the least glamorous sustainability lever, but also often the biggest because it cuts down on material and freight at the same time.
An important thing to keep in mind about this list is that the word "eco" doesn’t do any work on its own.
The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) sets the national framework that brands are measured against, and the direction of travel is fast moving away from vague claims and towards specifics that can be backed up with facts.
Naming the board, the certification and the recyclability is both more honest and more useful than simply stating "sustainable packaging."
Where the sustainable options perform, and where they get tested
Sustainable does not automatically mean fragile, but food packaging is demanding for any material, so it’s worth being clear about when plain, recyclable cardboard is enough, and when it needs some reinforcement.
For dry, ambient goods grouped in an outer carton, FSC board does perfectly fine. The challenge arises with cold and moisture.
We use refrigeration-grade board, which is also called RC craft, for products that are kept in a cool room. We make boxes for a brand that produces chilled ready meals that need to be microwaved, and once those meals are boxed, the cartons are stored cold and shipped interstate on pallets.
This means the board has to hold up in that environment without moisture wicking through and softening the box or reaching the product and contaminating it. Ordinary board can’t survive in such conditions, and that’s the sort of constraint you only discover by asking how the product is stored and moved, not just what it is.
An honest conversation about sustainability includes those limits. A recyclable box is the right starting point, but if it has to be in a cool room for days on end or cross the country while refrigerated, the spec has to account for that, and we would rather flag it up front than have a box fail in the field when it’s too late to do anything about it.
Cold chain and interstate: keeping food cold in a cardboard box
Some food doesn’t just need to stay dry, it needs to stay cold for the entire journey to the customer, which is more of a packaging problem than a food one.
We can build a fully insulated box for jobs like these. These are sometimes called a “chilltainer,” designed to maintain temperature for interstate shipping of perishable food. The insulation and the structure are designed around the individual product and its journey, so a brand that ships chilled or frozen goods for the first time isn’t left guessing at how to keep it cold.
The clearest example we can point to is our PR work for Tassal.
"I recently did a PR box for Tassal Salmon for International Salmon Day. It had to sit with trays of salmon and ice blocks underneath, so we allow for that in the build-up of the box, how we scope it and how we make it, so the trays sit into it properly."
– Roisin Donnellan, Boxes To Go
That box was more than just a shipping carton; it was a presentation piece that also had to perform as a cold box, hold the salmon trays, seat the ice blocks underneath and keep everything cold and stable while it was handled.
We have worked with Tassal several times in addition to International Salmon Day, making them a National Prawn Day carry kit and a Lunar New Year box. Each had the same underlying brief in addition to a nice-looking box: keeping real, perishable food safe.
Beverage: holding the weight and stopping the breakage
Drinks are their own category, and the sustainability question for them is less about cold and more about strength.
When it comes to clients that make beverages, particularly a wine or spirits brand shipping glass, the box has to support the weight of the bottles and also stop them moving. The most common issue here is preventing bottles hitting each other in transit and cracking the glass. The solution is usually partitions, which are simple internal dividers that keep each bottle in its own cell so nothing touches.
Some clients prefer to avoid partitions as they bump up the cost and use more material. However, a cracked bottle means a replaced product, a repacked order and often a lost customer, which is far worse for both the budget and the environment than a partition made of recyclable board.
This means that it can be more economical and sustainable to spend a little more on materials.
How to think about sustainable food packaging
If you are planning specs for the outer packaging of a food or drink product, here’s a simple way to look at it:
- Separate the two layers. Know what touches the food and what carries it. They have different rules and solve different problems, and the outer box is often where the real protection decisions need to be made.
- Make the green claim specific. Name the board (FSC-certified), name what is recyclable and be honest about anything, like a heavy coating, that might compromise it. Specifics beat "eco" every time, and they hold up to scrutiny.
- Design for the journey, not just the shelf. Ask how the product is stored and moved. Cool room, interstate freight, glass in transit: each one changes the specs, and none of them are visible from the product alone.
- Right-size before you reach for anything fancier. A box matched to its contents is the biggest sustainability win available, and it saves on freight at the same time.
- Talk through the awkward jobs. Keeping food cold across the country or holding fragile glass safely is exactly the kind of thing worth working out with someone who knows how to build these boxes rather than guessing.
Sustainable food packaging is not only a wrapper you can compost, it is the box that means the food arrives in one piece, still cold and without a cracked bottle or a soggy carton. That box is the layer most people specify last, but it deserves a lot of thought.
Shipping food or drink and not sure your outer packaging is up to it?
Whether it is keeping meals cold across the country, holding glass safely in transit or simply making sure the box that carries your product is FSC-certified and right-sized, we do this kind of thing every day.
Send us your product, tell us how it travels, and we will be honest about what kind of box you need.
Short run or full production, made here in Melbourne, go with Boxes To Go.