Packaging is where a good freezing process is preserved or thrown away. For frozen berries moving from Ukraine to the EU, three decisions carry almost all of the risk: the food-contact liner, the carton specification, and the pallet pattern. Get those right and arrival condition becomes predictable; get them wrong and you will spend the season arguing about who caused the ice.
Legal baseline for food-contact materials
Any material touching the fruit must comply with Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 on food-contact materials, and plastics specifically with Regulation (EU) No 10/2011. In practice that means the supplier holds a declaration of compliance for the liner and can produce it per batch. Ask for the declaration itself, not a statement that one exists.
Labelling of prepacked food for the EU falls under Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. Bulk business-to-business cartons are not prepacked food for the final consumer, so the full consumer labelling set does not apply, but the carton still needs the information that lets the next operator comply and lets an inspector trace the lot.
Confirm the exact labelling set with your importer before printing. Requirements differ between bulk ingredient supply and retail-ready packs, and a printed carton is an expensive thing to be wrong about.
The liner
- Material. Food-grade polyethylene is the default. Thickness is typically specified in microns; thin liners tear on frozen fruit edges and on the pallet corner boards.
- Closure. Twist and tie, tape or heat seal. A loose closure lets moisture migrate, which is the origin of most internal frost.
- Barrier. Standard polyethylene is a moisture barrier, not an oxygen barrier. For long storage of high-value fruit, ask whether an oxygen barrier is justified for your shelf life.
- Glazing interaction. If the product is water glazed, the liner must tolerate the extra surface moisture without the fruit bonding to the film.
The carton
| Attribute | What to specify | Failure if you do not |
|---|---|---|
| Board grade | Wet-strength corrugated suitable for freezer conditions | Carton collapses in a humid cold store |
| Net weight | Stated per carton, net of glaze if glazed | Weight disputes on arrival |
| Dimensions | Fixed footprint that tiles a EUR pallet | Overhang, crushed corners, lost cube |
| Product, lot, production date, best-before, origin, storage temperature | Lot cannot be traced without opening | |
| Vent holes | Usually none for frozen | Moisture ingress if copied from chilled specs |
Frozen cold stores run high relative humidity. Ordinary corrugated board absorbs moisture, loses stacking strength and lets the pallet lean. Wet-strength board costs more per carton and pays for itself the first time a pallet is not rejected.
Pallet configuration
A standard EUR pallet measures 800 by 1200 millimetres. A standard reefer semi-trailer takes 33 EUR pallets in a single layer and around 22 tonnes of payload, so most frozen berry loads become volume limited before they become weight limited.
The practical consequence: carton footprint matters more than carton strength for your cost per kilogram. A carton that tiles the pallet with no overhang and no gap gives you the highest usable payload. A carton that is 20 millimetres too wide costs you a row.
- Choose a footprint that divides cleanly into 800 by 1200.
- Keep the load within the pallet edge. Overhang loses the corner support and invites crushing.
- Cap the stack height for the destination cold store, not for the truck.
- Strap or stretch-wrap at freezer temperature; some films lose elasticity in the cold and give a false sense of security.
- Place the temperature logger where the contract says it goes, and record where that was.
Common mistakes
- Reusing a chilled carton specification for frozen. Vent holes and standard board belong to a different temperature regime.
- Printing before the importer confirms the labelling set.
- Declaring gross weight when the buyer expects net of glaze.
- Mixing carton footprints on one pallet. The stack loses integrity and the pallet count stops matching the manifest.
- Leaving the best-before basis undefined. Twenty-four months from production and twenty-four months from freezing are not the same date.
A practical example
An exporter switched to a slightly deeper carton to fit a larger net weight and kept the same pallet pattern. The new carton overhung the pallet by 15 millimetres on each long side. Nothing failed in the cold store, but after two road legs the bottom tier had crushed corners and the receiving depot downgraded three pallets. The extra net weight per carton was worth less than the claim. The fix was to return to a tiling footprint and accept a lower fill per carton.
FAQ
How many cartons of frozen berries fit on a EUR pallet?
It depends entirely on carton footprint and permitted stack height. Calculate it from the 800 by 1200 millimetre base and your destination’s height limit rather than assuming a standard count.
Does packaging affect shelf life?
Yes. Moisture loss through a poor closure produces surface dehydration – the effect buyers call freezer burn – long before any microbiological limit is approached.
Is printed packaging required for private label?
For retail-ready private label, yes, and the print minimum usually sets the effective minimum order quantity. Bulk ingredient supply can ship on plain cartons with a label.
Who is responsible for the declaration of compliance?
The business placing the food-contact material on the market provides it, and your supplier passes it down the chain. Keep the current version on file for each liner specification you use.