When it comes to running a successful, efficient and hygienic bakery, there’s one key ingredient you may not have given more than a second thought to but can make all the difference.
The humble bakery tray may not seem much on first glance but it has an important role to play across the entire food production, processing and retail process. Join us at phs Teacrate in exploring how the properties of a good quality baking tray can make a difference:
- Versatility: Bakery trays must be suitable for a wide range of purposes and that’s the beauty of them – just one tray has many uses. They can be used to store dry goods and ingredients as well as dough ready to be baked. They can also hold bread, baked goods and pastries ready to take them from one area of your bakery to another – or to transport them to another destination altogether such as a retailer or food outlet.
- Suitable for display: While bakery trays are perfect to store and transport produce, they are also ideal for displaying baked goods ready for sale. This means there’s no need to pack them on to one tray only to repack them on to a separate display when they’re ready to be sold – they’re already prepped and ready to go.
- Protective: Nobody wants to buy a battered loaf of bread, squished scone or a crushed croissant so your bakery tray must be designed to be strong but as well as stackable. Stacking trays on top of one another facilitates storage and transportation all while ensuring that their fragile contents remain perfectly intact.
- Save spacing: The stackable nature of baking trays also helps them save space, negating the need for additional storage or equipment such as shelving. phs Teacrate’s bakery trays can be securely stacked up to 200 pieces high on a pallet. And if they’re empty, can nest snuggly within each other to take up less space.
- Durable: As you’re moving bakery trays around and transporting them, they’re likely to take a fair few knocks and bumps. Durability is key. The material of your bakery trays needs to be strong and hard wearing to stand up to the test of time.
- Food safe: To stick to stringent food hygiene standards, you’ll need to ensure your bakery trays are made from food grade HDPE or polyethylene. Wooden trays and pallets are not recommended since wood is absorbent and can retain bacteria, making them a potential source of cross contamination.
- Washable: Another hygiene benefit of food-grade plastic bakery trays is that they can be cleaned easily. As they’re used for a variety of bakery products and can be transported out and about, there’s a high risk that your bakery trays will get dirty and pick up germs and bacteria along the way. Regular washing will prevent the build-up of dirt and bacteria, keeping them safe and hygienic for the food industry. If you don’t have the facilities onsite, phs Teacrate offers a crate washing service with collection and delivery included.
- Reusable: While cardboard can be a popular choice for baked goods, it’s usually only suitable for single use before needing to be disposed of. Not only is this costly over time but unnecessary cardboard usage also places a burden on the planet. By switching to reusable plastic crates, or Returnable Transit Packaging (RTP), you’re reducing your use of cardboard as well as achieving a lower cost per usage over the long term.
If you’re looking to source bakery food trays, look no further than phs Teacrate. Our products can be purchased outright or rented with a fast, reliable service and delivery. Here are some of our bakery products available:
- Bakery food trays
Choose from a 35-litre standard food tray or 46-litre deep food tray from phs Teacrate. Nestable and stackable so they can be easily displayed, stored or transported on pallets, these food trays benefit from being lightweight as well as being robust and durable. They are compatible with supermarket bale arm trays, making them easy to use along the supply chain and are designed to move smoothly on roller conveyors. The trays can also be fully customised with an insert area for text, moulded-in logos and hot stamp branding areas. In addition, if you want to move stacked trays, you may want to consider a plastic food skate which allows them to be transported on wheels. These skates are strong, secure and can reduce the risk of injury from lifting heavy trays.
- Bakery plastic hygiene pallet
phs Teacrate’s HP1 hygiene pallet is ideal to transport bakery goods easily and conveniently. With a high-load bearing capacity, the plastic pallet is purpose-designed to reduce contamination risks associated with fibrous materials such as those in wooden pallets. As well as being anti-slip and strong, the pallets can also be easily washed to maintain high hygiene levels and remove bacteria. If you want to save space, the folding pallet box can be folded flat when empty.
- Bakery rigid pallet boxes
If you need to store and move around large loads of bakery produce within your premises or transport them to a buyer, retailer or food outlet, you’ll be looking for a robust container. The phs Tecrate rigid pallet boxes and rigid ventilated pallet boxes are more hygienic than wood which can absorb bacteria and are also washable. As they are reusable, they are more environmentally friendly than single-use products – delivering a lower cost per trip over time.
phs Teacrate offers a complete service solution for the storage, packaging and distribution of food produce along with an integrated, hygienic wash service. With more than 20 years’ experience and nationwide coverage, we are relied upon to move a staggering nine million crates a year. Find out more about phs Teacrate and our products for the food industry today.