What Foodservice Packaging Has to Do

Food packaging for quick-service restaurants and convenience stores has a demanding job. It must resist oil and grease, maintain its structure, move efficiently through restaurant operations, and represent the brand well. Increasingly, foodservice companies also want packaging that supports their sustainability goals without sacrificing performance.

But adopting a new packaging material requires more than choosing a promising paperboard. Brands need a manufacturing partner that understands how the material prints, converts, and performs as a finished carton.

Pak-Pro was one of the early adopters of Smurfit Westrock’s EnShield® SBS, successfully implementing the paperboard for a major quick-service restaurant application. Today, that experience allows Pak-Pro to help other food brands evaluate EnShield SBS with confidence, combining innovative paperboard technology with decades of folding carton and QSR packaging expertise.

Grease Resistant Paperboard Without Polyethylene Extrusion

Many foodservice cartons rely on a polyethylene, or PE, coating to prevent oil and grease from penetrating the paperboard. Although effective, that additional layer can make the packaging more difficult to recover after use and reduce the value of paperboard scrap generated during manufacturing.

EnShield SBS takes a different approach. The paperboard provides oil and grease resistance without polymer extrusion. Made from renewable, bleached virgin fiber, EnShield SBS also contains no intentionally added PFAS.

For quick-service restaurants, convenience stores, and other food brands, it provides an alternative for applications that require moderate grease resistance but may not need a traditionally poly-coated board.

Food-Safe Performance With Strong Brand Appeal

Food packaging must protect the product, but it must also carry the brand.

EnShield SBS combines its functional barrier properties with the clean appearance and print performance associated with solid bleached sulfate paperboard. Its smooth, bright-white surface supports sharp graphics, consistent color, and a premium presentation.

Product attributes include:

  • Suitability for direct food-contact applications
  • Oil and grease resistance without polyethylene extrusion
  • Made from renewable, bleached virgin fiber
  • Recyclable where appropriate collection and processing capabilities exist
  • No intentionally added PFAS
  • Bright-white appearance without optical brightening agents
  • Single-ply solid bleached sulfate construction
  • A smooth surface that supports high-quality printing

For food brands, this combination creates an opportunity to pursue packaging sustainability objectives while maintaining the visual quality and consistency customers expect.

Supporting More Recoverable Packaging

Removing the polyethylene layer can provide benefits at multiple points in the packaging lifecycle.

EnShield SBS is recyclable where appropriate collection and processing capabilities exist. During carton manufacturing, uncoated paperboard trim may also offer better recovery value than scrap from poly-coated board.

Together, these attributes can help food brands move toward more recoverable, fiber-based packaging without overlooking the performance demands of a real foodservice environment.

An Early Adopter With Real-World QSR Experience

Pak-Pro’s experience with EnShield began early in the product’s introduction.

Working with Smurfit Westrock, the Pak-Pro team successfully brought the paperboard into production for a high-volume quick-service restaurant (QSR) application. That early adoption required more than sourcing a new substrate. Pak-Pro evaluated how the paperboard would print, convert, and perform as a finished food carton in the demanding environment for which it was intended.

This successful implementation helped showcase EnShield’s capabilities while giving Pak-Pro valuable firsthand experience with the material.

“Pak-Pro was one of the first converters to embrace the innovation and sustainability benefits of EnShield SBS. They embraced the value of a fully repulpable package that can remain in the virgin fiber waste stream and saw the opportunity to help brands transition away from plastic. Today, our teams continue to work together to expand the use of EnShield in a wide range of foodservice applications.”
— Karen Prozny, Business Development Manager, Smurfit Westrock

For Pak-Pro customers, that early experience and ongoing collaboration provide a meaningful advantage: access to a packaging team that understands the paperboard and can help determine where it is the right solution, and where it may not be.

Designed for Foodservice Applications

EnShield SBS is well suited for a variety of food packaging applications, including:

  • Quick-service and takeout packaging
  • Convenience-store food packaging
  • Bakery cartons
  • Frozen food packaging
  • Other direct food-contact applications requiring moderate oil and grease resistance

The material can be a strong option for sandwiches, baked goods, and other prepared foods where maintaining carton strength and minimizing visible grease migration are important to the customer experience.

Because no two applications are exactly alike, Pak-Pro works with customers and their test kitchens to evaluate EnShield SBS under the conditions in which the packaging will actually be used.

“Fried food packaging isn’t one-size-fits-all. The amount of grease, serving temperature, hold time, carton structure, and restaurant environment can all affect performance. We’ve helped QSRs, convenience stores and other food brands work through those variables and develop cartons that stand up to real-world use. That experience allows us to ask the right questions and help each customer identify the best solution for their specific application.”
— Rob Frost, President, Pak-Pro

Smurfit Westrock Innovation, Delivered by Pak-Pro

Selecting the right paperboard is only one part of developing successful quick-service food packaging.

Material choice, structural design, printing, converting, food characteristics, and production requirements must all work together. A promising substrate will only deliver value if it can be turned into a carton that performs consistently in production, during restaurant service, and in the customer’s hands.

Smurfit Westrock brings the paperboard innovation. Pak-Pro brings the structural design, printing, converting, and foodservice manufacturing experience required to transform that material into a successful finished package.

Pak-Pro’s early work with EnShield gives food brands more than access to the paperboard. It gives them an experienced partner that understands how to apply it and can help move a packaging project from initial evaluation through full production.

Is EnShield SBS Right for Your Food Packaging?

If your company is exploring grease resistant paperboard without polyethylene extrusion or intentionally added PFAS, EnShield SBS may provide a compelling option.

Pak-Pro can help evaluate your food product, packaging format, and performance requirements to determine whether the material is the right fit, and then develop and produce a carton that protects the food, presents your brand, and performs reliably in high-volume operations.

To find out more about EnShield SBS and whether it’s suitable for your application, contact us today.