Hand holding Tetra Recart cartons with beans and sweet corn

The food package built for co-packing growth

Ready to move beyond cans and jars? Tetra Recart^® helps co-packers cut costs, maximise line efficiency and offer customers a modern, paper-based package that meets the needs of today's shoppers.

The shelf-stable food market is shifting –
co-packers who act now can lead it

The shelf-stable food market is shifting fast as brands and retailers look beyond cans and jars – and co-packers need packaging that keeps costs low, protects quality and supports modern sustainability expectations. Tetra Recart^® is designed for this reality, helping you reduce total cost per pack, streamline handling and transport, and deliver the food safety and shelf life your clients expect – all in a modern package that resonates with today's consumers

What does switching to cartons actually do for co-packer margins and growth?

For co-packers, every investment must strengthen flexibility and performance. As customers look beyond cans and jars, you need a packaging platform that fits your business, opens new category opportunities and protects margins – and modern paper-based cartons can do exactly that.

Tetra Recart carton packages, corn, beans and fresh tomatoes on wooden cutting board

Portfolio and customer appeal

With paper-based cartons you can serve a broad range of categories and pack sizes on the same platform, from vegetables and soups to baby food and ready meals. This versatility makes it easier to say "yes" to new briefs and present customers with differentiated, shelf-ready concepts in a modern format

Business model and capacity use

The ability to run multiple products and sizes on one carton line helps you keep equipment fully utilised and smooth out volume swings between customers. That means a more resilient co-packing model, better capacity planning and stronger economics over the lifetime of the investment, even as your customer mix evolves.

Tetra Recart carton packages in cardboard crate

Value chain economics

Flat, lightweight cartons improve pallet fill, warehouse efficiency and transport costs compared with traditional formats. Combined with efficient in-store replenishment and less damage on shelf, this can significantly improve the total cost picture beyond the packaging material itself and help you protect margins in competitive categories.

Hand holding Tetra Recart 100 mini carton package

Confidence and proof readiness

Carton packaging for shelf-stable food is already used at scale worldwide, supported by decades of experience in retorted food, equipment and plant design. You gain a future-ready platform that is proven in real operations and easier to present to customers as a credible alternative to traditional formats.

Four ways Tetra Recart strengthens your co-packing business

Tetra Recart is aligned with what matters most to your co-packing business – cutting costs, protecting quality, supporting sustainability goals and strengthening consumer appeal. See how Tetra Recart can unlock value across your operations and make your co-packing offer more competitive.

1. Cost management: reduce cost per package

Tetra Recart helps cut cost beyond the packaging material itself. Flat, lightweight cartons improve pallet fill and warehouse efficiency, while automation and fast size changeovers reduce labour and downtime.¹ Together this supports a lower total cost per package compared with traditional formats.

How can Tetra Recart help boost your food business?⁠

2. Quality: protect food and your reputation

The Tetra Recart process uses the same proven retort technology as cans and jars, delivering equivalent shelf life determined by your recipe, not the package. Carton design and Tetra Pak's application expertise support consistent heating, product integrity and line performance, helping you meet or exceed your customers' quality expectations.

Discover our Product Development Centres⁠

3. Sustainability: support your customers' goals

With a high share of responsibly sourced paperboard and a lower lifecycle carbon footprint than cans and jars², Tetra Recart helps you support the sustainability agendas of retailers and brand owners. Efficient transport and reduced product waste further cut environmental impact while strengthening your own sustainability credentials.

See four environmental reasons to choose Tetra Recart (pdf)⁠

4. Consumer appeal: popular with shoppers

Tetra Recart offers a contemporary, billboard-like canvas that stands out on shelf and online. The pack is easy to open, pour, reclose and store, and can be flattened after use, aligning with rising expectations on convenience and sustainability. This helps your customers refresh mature categories and keep their brands relevant.

Find out how to stand out on the shellf with package design⁠⁠

How to run Tetra Recart lines that are efficient, flexible and cost-competitive

Bring your customers’ canned or jarred products into Tetra Recart carton packages with compact, highly automated lines and proven processing know-how. From handling delicate recipes to filling and retorting, we help you run stable co-packing operations with an attractive total cost of ownership compared with traditional packaging lines.

Match your lines to your customers and volumes

Configure Tetra Recart lines to handle the mix of categories, package sizes and demand patterns your business serves. For large-volume SKUs with stable demand, the Tetra Pak^® R1 line delivers fully automated, high-speed filling of selected package volumes to maximise throughput. For broader ranges, frequent changeovers or to serve multiple customers on the same platform, the Tetra Pak^® R2 line can run the full Tetra Recart size span, supporting mixed portfolios and agile production.

Find out more about Tetra Recart lines⁠

Trust our expertise in retorting and line design

Work with Tetra Pak specialists who understand both retorted food and carton-based production. Together we define processing, filling and retorting conditions that secure consistent quality, food safety and yield for each customer's recipe. From early pilot trials through commissioning and optimisation, we support you in designing, installing and ramping up lines that fit your plant layout, operator capabilities and co-packing business model.

Tetra Recart cartons on pallet in warehouse

Reduce the footprint of packages and pallets

Flat-packed Tetra Recart material cuts storage space and handling effort for empty packages, freeing up valuable warehouse and production areas. Once filled, the rectangular cartons enable efficient pallet patterns and stable stacking, so you can move more finished product per truck and simplify in-plant logistics. This helps lower transport cost per unit, reduce manual handling and support smoother flows from material infeed to outbound shipments.³

Cans and Tetra Recart cartons with tomato products on shelf

Cartons vs cans: compare your options

Cans have long been the default for many shelf‑stable products you pack for customers. This piece explores how traditional cans and modern paper‑based cartons perform on what matters to co‑packers – value‑chain efficiency, logistics, carbon footprint and everyday consumer convenience.

Chick peas in Tetra Recart cartons, one white carton standing out

CO-PACKER GUIDE

How to make a smooth, profitable switch to cartons

Switching packaging formats is a significant decision. With the right preparation and expert guidance, you can get there faster while maximising your potential for profitability. Explore the six steps to a smooth transition to Tetra Recart.

Help your customers stand out on shelf – and grow in shelf-stable food

Use Tetra Recart to help your customers rethink how their products show up on shelf, on screen and in the pantry. By combining our category and consumer insight with recipe support and packaging design expertise, we help you turn ideas for shelf-stable foods into ready-to-launch concepts with clear business cases.

Woman presenting ideas, Customer Innovation Centre

Turn market trends into concepts that sell

Identify where carton-packed products can add most value across categories and channels. Using market and consumer insight, our Customer Innovation Centre experts work with your team to shape concepts, formats and value propositions that fit real-life usage occasions for your customers’ brands.

Explore our Customer Innovation Centre⁠

Prove your products in carton, step by step

Use our Food Development Centre and mobile test units to trial your customers' recipes – or adapted formulations – under realistic processing and retorting conditions. This gives you decision-ready data on quality, taste and performance before you scale up production for retailers and brand owners.

Discover the Food Development Centre⁠

Tetra Recart carton packages, generic designs

Make your customers’ ranges easy to choose

Leverage flat panels and multiple printable faces to showcase ingredients, nutrition and usage ideas with clear branding. Consistent designs across packs create a strong billboard effect, while distinctive carton graphics can help shoppers quickly find and favour your customers' products online.

Deep dive into package design⁠

Are your co-packing operations ready for what’s next?

Retailers and brand owners are constantly updating recipes, package sizes and sustainability expectations – and they expect co-packers to keep up. Moving products into Tetra Recart cartons gives you a platform that can evolve with customer needs, while our services and expertise support ongoing improvements in efficiency, uptime and environmental performance.

Fresh vegetables and fruit, Tetra Pak Services offerings

Stay responsive as your customer mix evolves

Customer portfolios can shift quickly – with new recipes, package sizes and flavour platforms across categories. Tetra Recart lines and services help you adapt without major disruption, supporting recipe adjustments, format changes and capacity ramp-ups for multiple customers. With Tetra Pak^® Advanced Agreements and tailored service packages, you can stabilise performance, share risk and keep your co-packing operations aligned with evolving demand.

Find out more about Tetra Pak  Advanced Agreements⁠

Food products in Tetra Recart carton packages

Reduce climate impact and boost sustainability credentials

Independent life-cycle assessments show that, for defined sizes and markets, Tetra Recart cartons can have significantly lower CO₂ emissions than several common alternative packaging formats.³ Combined with responsibly sourced materials and efficient transport, this helps you support your customers' sustainability agendas, demonstrate measurable progress and position your co-packing business as a future-ready partner.

Explore what else Tetra Recart can do

Tetra Recart is proven across a wide range of shelf‑stable foods, from everyday staples to specialised recipes. Explore how the same paper‑based, space‑efficient format can support multiple categories and create possibilities for future launches.