Tube Food Packaging

Only with a food-contact liner and a declaration of compliance covering that specific construction. The tube wall itself is not a food-contact surface, and neither is a printed wrap.

Tell us the food, the market and the shelf life you need, and the liner and seal are specified from that rather than from the tube.

It depends on the barrier, the seal, the headspace and how it is stored — in that order. An aluminum foil laminate liner with a heat-sealed membrane gives the longest life and the best aroma retention; a metallized film is a step below; a PE coating handles moisture but not oxygen.

Coffee sealed within a few days of roasting also needs a one-way degassing valve, or the tube will swell.

No. A wound paper wall cannot be relied on as a liquid-tight container, and condensation from chilled or fresh product attacks the wall from both sides. Hot-fill is also out, because heat and steam delaminate the liner from the board.

Dry goods, confectionery and semi-moist snacks are what this format is built for.

For 250 g of coffee, a 2½″ to 3″ internal diameter tube at 6″ to 8″ long is the usual answer. Bulk density changes it a lot though — 250 g of loose-leaf tea takes roughly twice the volume of 250 g of spice.

Allow about 10% headspace over the settled fill so the tube closes cleanly without sealing in avoidable oxygen.

A greaseproof or PE-lined tube with a paperboard cap is far closer to curbside paper than a foil-lined one, which cannot be separated at a household level. PLA-coated liners offer a compostable route, and the certification should be confirmed per build.

There is a genuine trade-off here: the liners that give the longest shelf life are the ones that recycle least easily. It is worth deciding which matters more before artwork.

The distinction that matters is the liner, not whether the wall is described as paper or cardboard — both are wound paperboard, and neither is a food-contact surface on its own. A heavier cardboard wall is used where the pack has to take handling; the food-contact layer is the same either way.

So specify the liner from the food and the wall from the handling, and the two decisions stay independent of each other.

Yes, and tea is one of the formats this pack suits best. Tea loses aroma and picks up moisture, so it wants a foil or metallized liner and a closure that reseals properly between uses — tin-plate ends are the usual answer.

Tea also has a low bulk density, so it takes more volume per gram than most people expect: 100 g of loose leaf needs roughly a 2½″ tube at 6½″ long, against 50 g of ground spice in a 1½″ tube at 4″.

A declaration of compliance naming your specific construction, and the migration test report behind it. Those two are what actually cover you, and they attach to the build rather than to the product category.

Where a retailer requires it, BRCGS Packaging Materials certified production can be requested and the certification scope supplied. Ask for all three before signing off a food build rather than after.

Yes. Print sits on the outside of the wall and the liner sits on the inside, so they are separate layers and neither compromises the other. Full-wrap offset printing, foil, emboss and matte or gloss lamination are all available on a lined food tube.

What does need care is set-off during production and storage, which is a manufacturing control rather than a design choice — and it is one of the things the declaration of compliance covers.

Yes. The standard minimum is 500 pieces, with smaller runs from around 100 pieces at a higher per-piece cost, since setup and printing are fixed regardless of quantity.

For food specifically it is worth quoting at two or three quantities before committing, because the liner and the seal carry their own setup and their share of the per-piece cost falls faster than the tube does as volume rises.

Yes. Samples can be provided to confirm sizing, material selection and design details before full production begins, so you can check the structure and the print in your hand rather than on screen.

Free design support comes with it — artwork preparation, layout help, bleed and print-ready file setup, and 3D mockups before manufacturing starts. For a first order it is worth using both, because the two things that go wrong most often are a diameter chosen without the product to hand and artwork laid out before the flat dimensions were confirmed.

Processing takes 3 to 5 business days, which covers printing, packaging and quality checks, and orders are processed Monday to Saturday. Transit is a further 3 to 5 business days, for a total estimated delivery time of 6 to 10 business days.

Timelines vary a little with the destination city and courier workload, and a tracking link is emailed once the order ships. Embossing adds to production time, so allow extra if your build includes it.

Yes — free standard shipping to the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Those are the destinations the policy covers, so it is worth checking it applies to yours before you plan around it.

The full terms, including processing and transit times, order tracking and what happens if a shipment is delayed or lost, are set out on the shipping policy page.