Fresh oysters laid out on ice at a market counter

Tested wet · Tested cold · Tested dropped

Biodegradable Packaging That Survives Wet Seafood

Seafood is the hardest thing to package sustainably: it is wet, cold, heavy, sharp-shelled and unforgiving of leaks. Most compostable trays that work for a sandwich collapse under two hundred grams of ice and brine. Ours are made for the job — moulded fibre and coated board with barriers that hold liquid for seventy-two hours at chill temperature, insulated shippers that keep a box under four degrees for a full day, and closures that survive a courier network. Everything is certified compostable or kerbside recyclable, and every claim is backed by a test report.

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About us

Started in a Shellfish Business, Not a Packaging One

The company grew out of an oyster producer's own problem. When the plastic bans arrived, every compostable alternative offered to them failed within a day: trays that softened under brine, boxes whose glue let go in a chill room, liners that leaked into a courier's van and cost them a client. They ended up developing their own materials with a paper mill and a moulded-fibre plant, and other producers started asking where the boxes came from. That is still the test we apply to everything: would we ship our own product in it.

Every product is tested wet, cold and rough. Trays are loaded to their rated weight with iced brine and left for seventy-two hours at two degrees to confirm the barrier holds and the structure keeps its shape. Insulated shippers are packed with a data logger and driven through a real courier network in summer and winter, and the temperature curve is published. Boxes are drop-tested from a metre on corner, edge and face, loaded. Reports go out with the specification rather than on request.

End-of-life is stated precisely rather than implied. Each item carries the standard it is certified to, whether that means industrial composting, home composting or ordinary paper recycling, and we say plainly when a coated material is recyclable but not compostable. Where a customer's local waste system will not accept a particular item, we tell them and offer the alternative. Vague sustainability language sells packaging; accurate labelling keeps customers out of trouble with their own regulators.

Oysters and lemons arranged in a woven basket

Advantages

Why It Holds Where Others Fail

Six things that decide whether packaging arrives intact or as a complaint.

Busy fish market with fresh catch on display

Barriers Tested Against Brine, Not Water

Salt water, melting ice and fish oils attack a fibre barrier far faster than tap water, which is why so many compostable trays pass a laboratory test and fail in a chill room. Our barrier coatings are tested with iced brine at the product's rated load for seventy-two hours at two degrees, and again with oily fish at ten degrees, because a tray that survives a scallop may not survive a mackerel. The test conditions are printed on the specification so buyers can compare like with like rather than trusting an unqualified claim of leakproof.

Cold Chain Proven on Real Routes

Insulated shippers are validated by packing them exactly as a customer would, with the same coolant, and sending them through the actual courier network in August and in January with a data logger inside. The published curve shows how long the contents stay below four degrees under each condition, so a seller can see whether next-day delivery is realistic from their location. We would rather a customer chose a different service than lose a consignment because a laboratory figure ignored two hours on a summer loading bay.

Made for Shells and Sharp Edges

Oyster and mussel shells, crab claws and lobster shells puncture thin liners and abrade coatings, and a box that survives filleted fish may be shredded by a dozen langoustines. Products intended for shellfish use a heavier fibre with a reinforced base, a separate absorbent pad and a corner geometry that spreads point loads. We say plainly which items are rated for shell-on product and which are not, rather than selling one tray for every application and hoping.

Certified, With the Standard Named

Every item states exactly what it is certified for — industrial composting, home composting, or paper recycling — with the standard number and the certificate available on request. Where an item is recyclable but not compostable we say so in the same size of type. Food contact compliance documentation is issued with each order, which matters when an inspector asks a fishmonger to produce it and the supplier is uncontactable. Nothing carries a leaf symbol without a certificate behind it.

Stock Held, Not Made to Order

Standard sizes are held in depth so that a fishmonger who runs out on a Thursday has stock on Friday rather than in six weeks. Minimum orders start at a single pallet-free box quantity for small producers, and we deliberately keep the range narrow — about forty items rather than four hundred — so that everything on the list is always available. Seasonal peaks around the winter holidays are forecast with regular customers in autumn and stock is reserved against their names.

Printing That Does Not Break the Compost Claim

Branded packaging usually loses its compostability at the printing stage, because standard inks and laminates are not certified. We print with water-based and vegetable-based inks that keep the certification intact, on presses set up for moulded fibre and coated board, from runs of two thousand upwards. Artwork is checked and adjusted free of charge, and we supply a physical proof on the actual material before a run, because colour on fibre never looks like colour on a screen.

Empty oyster shells piled on a shingle beach

Services

What We Supply

Trays, shippers, retail packs, printing, custom tooling and packing line advice.

Counter and Retail Trays

Moulded fibre and coated board trays from two hundred grams to three kilos, in shallow counter formats and deeper retail packs, with barrier grades for white fish, oily fish and shell-on shellfish. Available plain or printed, with matching lidding film that is certified compostable, absorbent pads and labels. Trays nest for storage, stack for display and hold their shape under ice, which is the property most alternatives lose within an hour.

Insulated Shipping Boxes

Paper-based insulated shippers in five sizes with recycled fibre or wool liners, leak-resistant inner bags, gel packs and closures that survive a courier network, published with their real temperature curves for summer and winter routes. Designed to be flattened and put in ordinary paper recycling by the customer receiving them, with the disposal instruction printed inside the lid where it will actually be read.

Oyster and Shellfish Packs

Wooden-look fibre baskets and reinforced boxes for oysters by the dozen and the hundred, mussel and clam nets in compostable mesh, crab and lobster boxes with restraint inserts, and the tamper-evident closures and traceability labelling that shellfish regulations require. Sizes match the standard grading counts used in the trade, so nothing has to be repacked between the purification tank and the customer.

Printing and Branding

Water-based and vegetable-ink printing that preserves the compostability certification, from two thousand units, with artwork checking, a physical proof on the real material, and colour matching within the limits fibre allows. We also supply printed labels, stickers and belly bands for producers whose volumes do not justify printed packaging, which achieves most of the effect at a fraction of the outlay.

Custom Tooling and Development

For volumes above about eighty thousand units a year, bespoke moulded fibre tooling for a specific product shape, developed from a sample of the customer's own catch, through prototypes to production, with full wet, cold and drop testing at each stage. Tooling costs are quoted openly and can be amortised across an agreed volume. Development typically takes ten to fourteen weeks and includes a line trial at the customer's own packing plant.

Packing Line and Compliance Advice

Advice on running fibre packaging through existing sealing and labelling equipment, which usually needs minor adjustments rather than new machinery, plus support with food contact documentation, packaging waste registration and the labelling rules for compostable materials in each market a customer sells into. Where a customer's volume does not justify changing at all, we say so and suggest a smaller first step.

Contacts

Samples, Quotes and Test Reports

Tell us what you pack, how much it weighs, how it travels and how long it must stay cold, and we will send samples free of charge along with the test reports for the items we recommend. Most customers test with their own product before ordering anything.

Printing, custom tooling and compliance questions go to the same office.

Office7 Quai Éric Tabarly, 56100 Lorient, France

Phone+33 2 97 21 58 46

Emailtidepackmaterials@outlook.com

OpeningMonday–Friday 07:30–18:00; despatch cut-off 15:00