A Guide to Catering Boxes: Types, Benefits & Uses

A Guide to Catering Boxes: Types, Benefits & Uses

When restaurant owners provide catering services to clients, they must do more than focus on the quality of the food. They should also use appropriate containers to deliver and present food to their customers. Restaurateurs should be aware of the various types of catering boxes that are available and their benefits and uses. Learn about each one in this comprehensive guide.

Catering Boxes

One of the most common items that people associate with restaurant catering services is the catering box. Restaurant and coffee shop owners can use several variations of this product when delivering food to their customers. Read about each one below.

Half-Size Catering Box

One type of catering box you can use is the half-size box, which is perfect for serving clients with orders requiring a half-size, deep table pan container. In addition, the box can accommodate two quarter-sized deep containers while keeping meals at the appropriate temperatures.

Regular or Jumbo Catering Boxes

A cardboard box contains multiple food items, including fruit, ham, bread, a beverage, and a dessert.

If your client orders a meal that requires a full-sized table pan, you should consider using a regular or jumbo-size catering box. The regular box allows caterers to transport the full pan or two half-sized medium or shallow ones at once. Additionally, this container provides ample room for cutlery, so your clients can easily cut and portion out their food.

When you must carry many food items to your client’s event, try the jumbo catering box. This can contain multiple trays, including the full-sized pan and half-, third-, and quarter-sized pans on top of it. You’ll look more professional to your client when you deliver multiple meals in a single box as opposed to carrying them in precarious stacks.

Sidebar Catering Box

One last option is the sidebar box; like the regular and jumbo boxes, it can carry a regular-sized deep table pan. With the sidebar, you can also mix things up. It can contain a half-deep pan and four additional containers for items like fruits, condiments, and soups to tantalize the taste buds of your clientele. It can even contain eight containers worth of those items instead of a half pan.

Corrugated Catering Trays

Another option for moving multiple items at once is a corrugated catering tray. With this box, workers can easily move large and small stacks of containers. Manufacturers build them with handles on each side and capacities of 65 pounds. Your employees can make deliveries with greater ease and avoid dropping boxes and ruining their contents.

Coffee Carrier Boxes

Food is not the only thing that you must provide to your catering customers. Sometimes, they need hot coffee to stay alert at work meetings or to stay warm at outdoor events, like weddings. In such cases, you should provide a coffee carrier box.

Your workers can easily transport this blistering beverage, and the customers can serve the coffee without issue on-site. Each box features a cardboard handle that users can hold to lift it and tip it to the side, so they can pour themselves a warm cup of joe out of the dispenser. These boxes also come with a lid your clients can place over the dispenser between pours and protect the coffee inside.

Why You Should Buy Catering Boxes

Now that you know about several types of catering boxes, we can look at their benefits and other uses. By incorporating them into your catering operations, you will give numerous advantages to your business and hopefully increase client satisfaction.

Catering Boxes Prevent Damage and Contamination

When a catering customer’s order arrives, it is normal for them to expect their meal without any damage or contamination that may have occurred on the ride over. By using catering boxes, you can ensure this doesn’t happen and keep them at the appropriate temperatures thanks to the protection of rigid cardboard structures.

By putting your clients’ orders in catering boxes and coffee carriers, you will shield them from insects and other things that could cause contamination. Your client will feel more assured that you are doing your best to serve them safe products in a hygienic fashion. That will make a good impression on them and possibly put them on the road to becoming a repeat customer.

You Can Advertise Your Business

Marketing is the key to a business’s success, and catering boxes provide a means of advertising your services. With the help of a custom food service or restaurant supply company, you can modify catering boxes to feature your restaurant or coffee shop’s name and logo. Your business could resonate further in the customer’s mind long after you have made your deliveries.

Catering Boxes Appeal to Eco-Friendly Clients

Now more than ever, people are focused on being eco-conscious. This includes many of your clients! By utilizing corrugated catering boxes, you will send them the message that you care about sustainability. That will prompt them to continue using your business since you share their values.

How You Can Use Catering Boxes

A group of people sit around a table and laugh during an office meeting, while food and beverages sit in front of them.

One of the many great things about catering boxes is that restauranteurs and coffee shop owners can use them to serve various events. For example, you can use the food boxes and trays to carry food to company events, such as holiday parties or long meetings where workers need refreshments while burning the midnight oil. They may even need a coffee carrier box to provide them with a steady source of caffeine.

You can also use your catering boxes to provide meals for personal events, such as parties where people have come together to celebrate a beloved friend’s birthday or an anniversary. You may need to use catering boxes to transport hot meals to feed the hungry guests at a wedding reception. The applications are quite broad, which will work well for your catering services.

After reviewing the various types, benefits, and uses of these boxes, you can provide your clients with the catering services that they expect and deserve. Invest in them today to keep your services at the top of your clients’ minds when they organize their next gathering or event.

Jun 6th 2025

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