Frozen Food Packaging: 4 Considerations for Brands

Families looking for convenient, affordable meals often head down the freezer aisle at the grocery store. The best frozen food options offer busy families quick meals with very little hands-on prep time. Single servings in reclosable packaging are convenient for households of all sizes.

Frozen food also helps shoppers waste less food, thanks to a long shelf life. Importantly, frozen foods (particularly fruits and vegetables) don’t lose nutritional value over time—a major benefit over produce purchased fresh and stored on the counter or in the refrigerator.

Freezer sales, which spiked in 2020, remained above pre-pandemic levels into 2023, as families continue to take advantage of the benefits of frozen foods. And, with consumers looking to make the most of their grocery budgets, average spending on frozen prepared foods increased 17% in 2025.

For businesses, this means frozen food is a valuable, growing part of the retail food industry. To deliver on consumers’ expectations, these businesses need the right frozen food packaging for their freezer aisle offerings.

Packaging keeps food safe for the consumer, serving as a barrier from contaminants and communicating potential hazards such as allergens. Packaging materials must protect foods from deterioration without leaching any harmful chemicals. Migration, or the unwanted transfer of chemicals and other contaminants from packaging materials to the food within, can be mitigated with non-toxic, food-grade packaging materials.

Packaging for frozen foods must be durable enough to withstand the variety of outside forces it encounters as it moves through the supply chain, from packing facility to transport to busy retail environments to the consumer’s freezer.

These forces include:

Durable packaging keeps frozen food from deteriorating, ensuring it remains high-quality and nutritious throughout its shelf life.

Frozen food boxes should also have clear storage instructions tailored to the food inside, including the optimal temperature for food preservation. To help consumers extend shelf life and reduce food waste, these instructions should be easy to find on the packaging.

The freezer aisle is filled with options for shoppers, and they’re all behind freezer doors that are often coated in a layer of frost. Companies must invest in packaging design that catches shoppers’ attention, even in these conditions, as almost three-quarters of Americans “agree that the design of a product’s packaging… often influence[s] their purchase decisions when selecting which products to buy.”

Custom frozen food packaging needs to stand out while remaining true to your brand. This not only helps consumers choose your product in the store, but also from the options in their own freezer, perhaps encouraging repeat purchases. Whether sitting on store shelves or in the freezer at home, a box must use color, typography, iconography, and other graphic elements to be recognizable from any side.

A 2019 survey from Accenture revealed that while consumers are most concerned about a product’s quality and price, the vast majority (83%) believe products should be designed to be reused or recycled. More than 70% of those surveyed also say they are “buying more environmentally friendly products than they were five years ago,” with over 80% saying they plan to buy more environmentally friendly products in the next five years. More recently, a 2024 PwC survey found that almost half of consumers are choosing more sustainable products to reduce their environmental impact, and that shoppers are willing to pay a “sustainability premium” of almost 10%.

While these surveys consider products more generally, data suggests consumers carry these beliefs with them to the grocery store, with more than a third of shoppers checking packaging for the specific environmental initiatives that a purchase would support. A joint study from McKinsey and NielsenIQ found that a product able to make more than one sustainability-related claim (such as social responsibility <em>and</em> sustainable packaging) may experience faster growth over time.

To address these considerations, MOD-PAC can manufacture frozen food packaging from clay-coated newsback (CCN) enhanced with sizing for added protection during freeze-thaw cycles.

MOD-PAC’s Purchasing and Analysis Manager Stephen Weigold explains: “When customers are in the grocery store opening up those doors and closing them to grab your product, there’s going to be a little bit of thawing going on and then refreezing. This product protects against that. If you have a freezer application, this is the material that you need.”

This additional coating decreases the paperboard’s moisture absorption while increasing its wet strength. Importantly, the sizing does not affect recyclability.

Paperboard frozen food packaging offers distinct features that benefit businesses.

MOD-PAC works with several brands and private labels to bring their frozen foods to consumers across the country. Explore all of our custom food and food service packaging options, and contact us to learn more.