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Stretch wrap for meat and poultry

Meat and poultry plants wrap heavy boxes on cold, wet docks, and much of what they ship is frozen. The industry employed 556,647 people across 4,689 US establishments in 2025.1 It is concentrated in a handful of states, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Iowa leading.

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Pallets of white cartons wrapped in clear film in a cold store
Frozen cartons on pallets in a cold store, each pallet held in clear filmIllustrative image, generated; not a photograph of our stock

The loads, and the film for each

Start from what is on the pallet.

  • Boxed fresh meat, chilled

    Machine film, 80 to 90 ga

    Heavy, square boxes; cold-rated film and firm base wraps.

  • Frozen cartons to a warm dock

    Vented film

    Sheds condensation instead of soaking the cartons.

  • Wet or iced combos and totes

    Blown film

    Cling that holds on damp surfaces, and toughness at the edges.

  • Mixed outbound orders

    Hand film by the case

    Picked in the cold store, wrapped by hand.

Where the industry is

States with the most jobs in it, BLS QCEW 2025.

US total in meat and poultry processing: 556,647 private jobs across 4,689 establishments, 2025 annual average.1

Cold, wet and heavy

Three things film has to cope with.

Cold stiffens film, so check its rating: one common machine roll is rated from 0 to 120 °F.3 Wet cartons need cling that works on a damp face. And frozen product leaving for a warmer dock sweats; vented film lets it, provided nobody wraps solid film over the top and the wrapper doesn't stretch the vents shut.2 In Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa this industry is many times its national share of jobs, so a lot of the film on those docks is bought for exactly these loads.

Combo bins and boxed product

Two different loads.

Boxed meat leaves in uniform cartons that stack well, so the challenge is mostly weight and cold. Combo bins, the large corrugated or plastic totes used for trimmings and bulk product, are tall and heavy on a small base, and film round them is mostly there to keep the lid and sides in place. Plants also wrap packaging supplies arriving from suppliers, which is ordinary dry freight. Many plants run a wrapper at the end of each line in the cold room and wrap dry goods by hand at receiving.

Sanitation and film

Washdown areas.

Wrapping areas next to production rooms are washed down often. Keep film cases off wet floors, in sealed storage, and replace any roll that gets soaked; wet film loses cling and can carry contamination onto the load.

Frozen exports need extra top turns.

Questions from these docks

Do wet cartons need special film?
They need film that clings to a damp surface. Blown film and two-sided cling help; check the tail stays put on your wettest loads.
Where should frozen pallets get vented film?
Where they will meet warmer air on the way: an open dock, a long loading time, a warm trailer.
Are by-products wrapped the same way?
Rendered products, hides and other by-products often travel in bins, drums or bags, each wrapped as its container needs.

Sources

  1. BLS QCEW 2025, meat and poultry processing (NAICS 3116) (reviewed 2026-11-12)
  2. Racklify, "How to choose and apply vented stretch film for cold, frozen and damp products" (reviewed 2026-11-13)
  3. Uline, machine-length cast stretch film, 80 gauge, 20 in x 5,000 ft (product listing) (reviewed 2026-11-13)

Facts on this page last reviewed 2026-11-13.

Ask for a stretch film quote

Say whether the boxes are chilled or frozen and how they are wrapped; then the film and rolls a month.

  • Step 1 asks what you need, how much a month, the delivery ZIP and how to reach you
  • Step 2 asks the film, the width and the gauge; skip what you don't know