A three-way packaging coalition has cracked one of fresh-food merchandising's longest-standing technical barriers. Cirkla, Belmark, and Ossid jointly unveiled the first resealable fiber tray system built for commercial-scale food production — combining molded fiber trays, peel/reseal lidding film, and automated sealing equipment in a configuration that until now existed only on packaging engineers' wish lists.
The solution debuted publicly at The Global Produce and Floral Show in Orlando (October 14–16) and Pack Expo in Chicago (October 18–21), two of the industry's highest-traffic venues for fresh-food and packaging buyers. The timing is deliberate: both events draw category managers, retail procurement teams, and protein processors actively evaluating sustainable packaging alternatives ahead of 2027 planogram resets.
Why the Shelf Matters
For grocery retailers, the commercial stakes are tangible. Resealable packaging is a proven velocity driver in the fresh protein and grab-and-go segments — it reduces shrink, extends consumer use windows, and differentiates at shelf without requiring a price premium. Until now, that functionality belonged exclusively to rigid plastic trays. Cirkla's molded fiber trays reduce plastic content by up to 90% compared with conventional formats, and the company says its trays match or exceed plastic on shelf life, barrier properties, and durability — metrics that category managers in fresh protein and produce weigh heavily in supplier scorecards.
Critically for retailers and co-packers evaluating the switch, Cirkla's trays are validated on all major tray sealers in the U.S. market, including Ossid equipment, with no capital expenditure or line reconfiguration required. That plug-and-play compatibility removes the slotting and capital-cost friction that has historically slowed sustainable-packaging conversions across the fresh perimeter.
Production Scale and Timeline
Cirkla's first U.S. manufacturing facility in Gainesville, Georgia is scheduled to commence operations in Q1 2027, adding domestic supply capacity to existing manufacturing in India. The company reports commercial validation with some of the largest U.S. retailers and protein processors — a track record that positions the Gainesville plant as a near-term supply chain option for regional and national grocery buyers working to hit sustainability commitments.
The sealing side of the system runs on Ossid's ReeMaster NextGen Automatic Tray Sealer, a servo-driven platform designed for medium-to-large production environments. The machine supports top-seal, Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), and Vacuum Skin Packaging (VSP) formats, and its 12-inch touchscreen with recipe management is built to speed changeovers — a practical consideration for multi-SKU fresh operations where line flexibility directly affects cost-per-unit.
Belmark, the privately held lidding film and flexible packaging manufacturer, contributed the adhesive and film engineering that makes peel/reseal functionality work on a fiber substrate — a bonding challenge that had previously prevented fiber trays from entering the resealable tier of the fresh-food case. "Sustainability, product protection, and consumer convenience are no longer a trade-off," said Jason Vandeloo, Director of Business Development at Belmark.
Glenn Divers, Vice President of Sales at Cirkla, framed the launch as a category inflection point: "When you convert a single-use tray into a resealable, multi-use package without compromising performance, cost, or asking brands to change their lines — you remove every reason not to switch."
For grocery buyers and category managers tracking the sustainable packaging curve in the fresh perimeter, the Cirkla-Belmark-Ossid system lands as one of the more operationally complete proposals in the fresh protein and produce segments to emerge in the current buying cycle.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
