Disposable food packaging comprises
 

Disposable food packaging comprises disposable products often found in fast-food restaurants, take-out restaurants and catering establishments. Typical products are foam food containers, plates, bowls, cups, utensils, doilies and tray papers. These products can be made from a number of materials including plastics, paper, bioresins, wood and bamboo. Visit for more information Pull Out Boxes

Packaging of fast food and take-out food involves a significant amount of material that ends up in landfill, recycling, composting or litter.

In 1908, Samuel J. Crumbine was a public health officer in Kansas. He was on a train when he witnessed one of his tuberculosis patients taking a drink of water from a common dipper and water bucket (a publicly shared way of drinking water) in the car. Right behind his patient was a young girl who drank from the same dipper and bucket. This inspired him to launch a crusade to ban publicly shared or common utensils in public places. Taking note of the trend, Lawrence Luellen and Hugh Moore invented a disposable paper cup called the "Health Cup" and later renamed the "Dixie Cup".
Single-use cone cups were followed by the commercialization of single-use plates and bowls, wooden cutlery, and paper food wraps. By the 1930s these products were widely used to feed the men and women who worked on the remote dams, bridges and roads of the Works Progress Administration. In the 1940s they were used to feed defense factory workers.
After World War II, foodservice packaging materials like plastic and polystyrene foam were developed. The unique properties of these materials (insulation and weight reduction) and their ability to be made into a variety of shapes and sizes, provided foodservice operators, and consumers, with a wider variety of packaging choices.
A major development in disposable foodservice packaging happened in 1948 when the newly founded McDonald's restaurant closed to revamp its menu. Along with changing their menu items, the restaurant wanted to change the way it handled dishwashing and dishwashers, car hops and wait staff, and storage, breakage and (customer) theft of tableware. When the McDonald's re-opened six months later, its meals were no longer served with the use of glasses, plates or cutlery, and were taken away from the restaurant by the customers.
The use of disposable foodservice packaging is a step toward preventing foodborne disease. By being used only once, these products help reduce food contamination and the spread of diseases.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Code authoritatively spells out the sanitary and health advantages of single-use foodservice packaging in specific situations: "A food establishment without facilities...for cleaning and sanitizing kitchenware and tableware shall provide only single-use kitchenware, single-service articles, and single-use articles for use by food employees and single-service articles for use by consumers." The Food Code further states "in situations in which the reuse of multiuse items could result in foodborne illness to consumers, single-service and single-use articles must be used to ensure safety."
Disposable foodservice packaging can be made from a number of materials, each with its own uses and benefits.
Many disposable foodservice products can be made of plastic or plastic-coated paper: cups, plates, bowls, trays, food containers and cutlery, for example. Plastics are used because the material is lightweight and holds the temperature of hot/cold food and beverages. Foamed polystyrene (sometimes referred to as Styrofoam) is in one of the most common types of plastics used for foodservice packaging, in the form of the foam food container. Non-foamed polystyrene is sometimes also used for utensils or plastic plates. Polyethylene and other plastics are also used.
Disposable foodservice products made from paper, paperboard, and corrugated fiberboard include cups, plates, bowls, napkins, carryout bags, trays, egg cartons, doilies and tray liners. Some paper products are coated - mostly with plastic - or treated to improve wet strength or grease resistance. Paper and paperboard packaging like pizza trays, French fry trays, Chinese noodle soup boxes, hamburger clamshell trays, etc., are developed by printers utilizing paper-converting equipment such as tray formers.
Molded pulp products are made from recycled newsprint and are formed under heat and pressure into plates, bowls, trays and cup carriers. Molded pulp is readily recyclable.
In recent years, manufacturers have been working on developing more sustainable alternatives to traditional plastic products. Amongst them are plates and cutlery made from bamboo and wood (mostly birch). Throughout the entire life cycle of wood products, there can be far fewer environmental repercussions than with traditional plastics, and possibly fewer with bioplastics like PLA, which composts into lactic acid. Wooden products decompose on average in the matter of a few months. Currently wood and bamboo products are more costly than traditional plastics and not as widely available, which makes it challenging for some restaurants to switch.
A number of manufacturers are now making disposable foodservice products from a combination of natural starches, recycled fibers, water, air, and natural minerals. These composite products include cups, plates, bowls, cutlery, sandwich wraps, food containers and trays. Ideally these products are easily biodegradable and composted after use.
The material used to make these kinds of disposable foodservice products is primarily PLA or polylactic acid. Some products are made from a mixture of PLA and pulp fibers that are molded into disposable foodservice items with h