Heat-Retaining Food Trays

ProAmpac Designs Packaging for Circle K’s Hot Wings

ProAmpac is advancing heat-retaining food trays with a custom fiber-based package developed for Circle K’s Flamin’ Hot Boneless Chicken Wings. Designed specifically around the recipe and portion size, the tray addresses common hot-hold challenges by helping retain heat and moisture while providing enhanced grease resistance. ProAmpac also optimized PepsiCo’s initial branding for production and improved product visibility, allowing the wings to stand out more clearly in heated display cabinets. The result combines food preservation with a more polished retail presentation.

For Circle K, packaging tailored to a specific menu item can help maintain product quality for longer while creating a more consistent customer experience. The approach also shows how convenience retailers can treat packaging as part of product development rather than an afterthought. For ProAmpac, developing recipe-specific solutions creates opportunities to deepen partnerships with foodservice brands seeking packaging that supports operational performance, merchandising and differentiated menu launches.

Image Credit: ProAmpac

Recipe-specific Packaging
Custom tray formats tailored to exact menu items create room for packaging to become a performance layer in food development rather than a generic container.
Hot-hold Merchandising
Heat-retaining materials that preserve visibility, moisture and grease control are reshaping how ready-to-eat foods compete inside convenience retail displays.
Fiber-based Foodservice Design
Sustainable packaging substrates with functional heat and barrier properties signal new potential for replacing conventional plastic formats in prepared food programs.

Sectors Adopting This

Convenience Retail
Retailers with expanding hot food menus can use specialized packaging systems to improve product consistency, impulse appeal and operational reliability.
Food Packaging
Advanced fiber packaging producers are positioned to differentiate through item-specific engineering that blends preservation, branding and in-store presentation.
Quick-service Food
Prepared food operators benefit from packaging innovations that support longer holding windows, more polished merchandising and smoother limited-time menu launches.
SCORE
8.6 out of 10
GENDER
50% Men50% Women
MARKETTop markets: North America, Europe
GENERATION
  • Gen Alpha
  • Gen Z (primary audience)
  • Millennial (primary audience)
  • Gen X (primary audience)
POPULARITY
Popularity 75%
Activity 83%
Freshness 100%