Packaging is one of the most misunderstood — and most expensive — decisions a restaurant makes. Not because of the price on the invoice, but because of what happens after that container leaves your building.

The wrong lid costs more in guest retention than it does in dollars.
The wrong material ruins your food faster than labor ever could.
The wrong package damages your brand in the customer’s hand.

I didn’t learn this in a classroom. I learned it on the floor of factories, inside blow-molding facilities and thermoforming plants, in back-of-house prep lines, ghost kitchens, commissaries, franchise QSRs, mom-and-pops, food trucks, airports, casinos, catering programs, club stores, and everywhere in between.

I wrote this book because restaurants are being asked to operate with:

• Higher costs
• Lower guest patience
• Faster delivery ecosystems
• More competition than ever before

And packaging — the one tool that touches cost, product, guest experience, labor, and brand all at once — is still treated like an afterthought.

This book is my attempt to fix that.

It’s not about which container to buy.
It’s about how to engineer a packaging system that drives profit, protects food integrity, strengthens your brand, and supports modern restaurant operations.

Packaging is not a cost center.
Packaging is a strategy.

Let’s build it like one.

— Eric Faber

For twenty years in this business, I thought packaging was simple: find the cheapest container that won’t break and call it a day. I believed the purpose of packaging was just to “hold the food.”

Then I met Eric Faber.

Eric taught me — and countless operators around the country — that packaging isn’t just a container. It’s a guest experience tool. A profit lever. A branding engine. Packaging is the silent part of your service model that speaks the loudest once the guest walks out the door.

Before this book, there wasn’t a resource that connected:

• Packaging to menu engineering
• Packaging to labor efficiency
• Packaging to delivery ecosystems
• Packaging to repeat frequency and lifetime value

Now there is.

This book doesn’t sell you product. It teaches you how to think. It gives you frameworks, not catalogs. It shows you exactly how to make packaging decisions the same way you make menu, staffing, and financial decisions: with intention, clarity, and math.

If you care about margins, consistency, retention, delivery performance, brand reputation, or guest experience, you picked the right book.

Welcome to the first restaurant packaging manual that actually understands restaurants.

Packaging is not a line item. It’s a system.

And in today’s restaurant industry, that system determines margin, guest satisfaction, and brand perception more than most operators realize.

For decades, packaging has been treated as an afterthought—something purchased, not engineered. But the truth is simple:

The wrong packaging costs you far more than the invoice.

It costs you labor efficiency.
It costs you product integrity.
It costs you repeat guests.
It costs you profit.

This book is the first operational manual to show restaurants how to build a packaging system—not a SKU list. You’ll learn how to match materials to menu, align packaging with labor and kitchen flow, support off-premise and delivery channels, streamline SKUs, and protect the product you’ve worked so hard to create.

Inside, you’ll find practical frameworks, real-world tools, and field-tested strategies for:

• Engineering packaging for speed, quality, and consistency
• Reducing waste, redundancy, and delivery failure points
• Choosing materials based on menu physics, not guesswork
• Protecting margins through system design and ROI logic
• Packaging for independent operators, ghost kitchens, and multi-unit growth
• Aligning packaging decisions with guest experience & brand value

This isn’t theory.

It’s the playbook for restaurants operating in the real world: where labor is tight, costs are high, and perfection is expected on the move.

Eric Faber is a lifelong packaging professional and restaurant consultant who grew up in the industry, learning manufacturing and operations from the inside out. His career spans blow molding, thermoforming, molded fiber, packaging sourcing, and restaurant systems consulting. Through U.S. Restaurant Consultants, he helps independent operators, franchise groups, and hospitality executives build packaging programs that drive profitability, protect product integrity, and elevate every guest touchpoint.

“Packaging isn’t a purchase. It’s a strategy.
And if you build it like one, everything gets better.” — Eric Faber

Eric Faber grew up in the packaging industry — literally.

As a young boy, he watched his stepfather pioneer one of the first American manufacturing operations for plastic cutlery and foodservice disposables. That early exposure led to a lifetime career in packaging, manufacturing, and consulting across North America and Europe.

Over forty years later, Eric has built a rare cross-disciplinary expertise at the intersection of:

• Restaurant operations
• Packaging manufacturing & sourcing
• Club store & retail product strategy
• Food truck and ghost kitchen operations
• Supply chain systems & logistics design
• Hospitality experience engineering
• 
  

Eric has advised independent operators, franchises, OEMs, and international project developers on how to build packaging systems that activate brand, protect product integrity, and drive profit.

He is the founder of U.S. Restaurant Consultants, U.S. Food Truck Consultants, Packaging Resources, and The Construction Forensics Group of Idaho, and the author of The Restaurant Playbook, Wheels Of Fortune, The Mobile Food Playbook,  and the forthcoming Packaging For Restaurants.

When he’s not writing, consulting, or building packaging frameworks, he can be found in Idaho, working with operators, mentoring emerging entrepreneurs, and pursuing his mission to modernize the foodservice industry one system at a time.

1. Why Packaging Is the Most Undervalued Asset in the Restaurant Business
2. The Packaging Profit Equation
3. The Hidden Costs of Bad Packaging (And How They Kill Margin)
4. 
   

1. Designing a Packaging Program, Not Buying Containers
2. Menu Integration & Packaging Compatibility
3. Portioning & Yield Control Through Packaging
4. Guest Experience: Sensory, Delivery, Ritual & Repeat Behavior
5. Branding Through Packaging: The Silent Salesperson
6. 
   

1. Dine-In Packaging (Yes, it matters)
2. Takeout Packaging
3. Delivery Packaging (And 3rd Party Realities)
4. Drive-Thru Packaging
5. Ghost Kitchens & Virtual Brands
6. Food Trucks & Pop-Ups
7. 
   

1. Plastics vs Fiber vs Paper — The Truth
2. Hot, Cold, Crispy, Saucy — Material Matchmaking
3. Sustainability Myths & Realities for Restaurants
4. How to Right-Size SKUs & Avoid Inventory Chaos
5. 
   

1. Packaging Cost as a Line Item vs Profit Engine
2. Supply Chain & Freight Reality
3. Club Stores, Retail Crossover & Packaging Extensions
4. Custom, Semi-Custom & Stock (When to Choose What)
5. 
   

1. Burger, Fried Chicken, Sandwich
2. Pizza, Pasta, Italian
3. Mexican & Greasy Food Profiles
4. Bowls, Salads & Cold Offerings
5. Coffee, Bakery & Beverage Packaging
6. Fine Dining, Catering & Banquets
7. Bars & Mixology Programs

1. The Packaging Scorecard for Restaurants
2. Supplier Evaluation Criteria (and what to ask)
3. Spec Sheets, SKUs & Ordering Standards
4. Packaging ROI Calculator for Restaurants
5. Guest Feedback & Packaging Testing Protocols

1. The QSR That Increased Repeat Orders 12% with Better Lid Fit
2. The Ghost Kitchen Saved by SKU Optimization
3. The Food Truck That Became a Retail Brand
4. The Fine Dining Chef Who Tripled Catering Revenue via Packaging

• The Future: Robotics, AI, Dynamic Packaging & On-Demand Manufacturing
• Final Thoughts: It’s Not Packaging — It’s a System
• Templates, Checklists & Tools
• About the Author