Yangi's Dry-Formed Fiber Trays: What a Purchasing Coordinator Needs to Know Before Switching from Plastic

I manage packaging-adjacent purchasing for a 180-person food manufacturer -- roughly $350K in annual spend across seven vendors. I report to both our operations director and finance, which means every material change I process gets scrutinized from two very different angles: "will it work on the line?" and "what does it cost?" When our sustainability team flagged Yangi's new dry-formed fiber tray as a potential replacement for the plastic trays we currently use on our chilled protein lines, both of those questions landed on my desk simultaneously.

So here's my honest read on what this product is, what it means for procurement teams, and why I think the bigger conversation isn't about the tray itself -- it's about whether dry forming technology is ready to displace the formats we've been buying for years.

The surface-level problem: plastic tray alternatives haven't been great

If you've been through the fiber tray evaluation cycle before, you probably share my frustration. Wet-molded fiber trays -- the kind most of us have seen pitched as "sustainable alternatives" -- have real limitations. Rough surface texture makes them hard to brand effectively. Inconsistent wall thickness causes issues with MAP sealing equipment. And for chilled protein applications, moisture performance has been a persistent headache.

Our VP of operations tested a wet-molded option in late 2024 for our ready-meal line. The trays looked fine out of the box, but once we ran them through our sealing equipment at production speed, roughly 8% failed the seal integrity check. That's not a viable reject rate when you're running tens of thousands of units per week. We shelved the project and went back to our existing plastic trays.

That experience is important context for understanding why Yangi's announcement matters. They're not just launching another fiber tray. They're claiming to have solved the fundamental manufacturing problems that have held fiber back in high-demand food applications.

The deeper issue: wet molding's structural limitations

The core of Yangi's pitch is their Cellera dry forming platform, and understanding why that matters requires understanding what's wrong with the conventional approach.

Traditional wet-molded fiber starts with a water-based pulp slurry. You form it, press it, and then spend significant energy drying it. The process inherently limits surface quality because the fiber distribution in a slurry is hard to control precisely. You get variation in wall thickness, surface roughness, and dimensional tolerance. For commodity applications -- think egg cartons or simple produce trays -- that's fine. For branded food packaging that needs to seal reliably under MAP conditions and look premium on shelf? It falls short.

Yangi's dry forming eliminates the water stage entirely. Their Cellera system uses what they describe as precision dual-drum airlaid formation with in-line custom pad formation. The practical result, according to their published specs, is smoother surfaces, tighter dimensional tolerances, and cycle times of 4-6 seconds per unit at industrial scale. They also claim approximately 80% lower CO2 impact compared to plastic alternatives, though I'd want to see the full LCA methodology before putting that number in a procurement report.

What the tray actually does

From a functional standpoint, Yangi says the tray has been tested for consumer use across chilled, frozen, microwave, and oven settings. That's a wide temperature and handling range. It maintains shape and structural stability through those conditions, supports MAP sealing for shelf-life requirements, and is made from renewable virgin fibers with a PFAS-free composition.

The recyclability picture is a bit nuanced -- it depends on the barrier laminate selected. Certain laminate configurations are designed to be compatible with existing paper recycling streams, which matters for EPR compliance and retailer sustainability scorecards. Others, presumably higher-barrier options for demanding protein applications, may not be curbside-recyclable. That's a trade-off that procurement and sustainability teams will need to navigate together.

On the branding side, the tray supports debossing, high-resolution digital printing across the full surface including the sides, and a label-ready finish. It comes in bleached and unbleached options with adaptable sizing. Hanna Rudel, Yangi's Chief Commercial Officer, emphasized the flexibility angle: "It gives brands and converters the flexibility to adopt fiber-based packaging that is intentional, premium and high-performing without compromising on design, functionality or cost."

The procurement reality: what I'd need to evaluate

Here's where my purchasing brain takes over. A new packaging format entering our supply chain triggers a fairly long evaluation checklist, and honestly, most of it has nothing to do with whether the tray looks good in a press release.

First -- vendor qualification timeline. Yangi is the technology provider, but as a purchasing coordinator, I'd be buying the trays through a converter who has licensed or installed the Cellera platform. That means I need to know: which converters are currently producing? Where are they located relative to our facilities? What's the lead time on initial qualification orders versus ongoing production runs?

Second -- cost structure. "Cost-competitive" is used in their announcement, but competitive with what? With plastic trays? With wet-molded fiber? With both? In my experience processing 60-80 POs annually for packaging consumables, "cost-competitive" in a press release and "cost-competitive on a landed-cost basis including tooling, minimums, and freight" are often very different things. I'd want unit pricing at our typical order volumes, tooling or setup costs for custom dimensions, and minimum order quantities.

Third -- supply continuity. One of the lessons I learned the hard way during our 2024 vendor consolidation project: don't spec in a material that only has one production source. If Cellera is currently available at a limited number of converter sites, that's a supply concentration risk. Not necessarily a dealbreaker, but something to factor into your backup planning.

Fourth -- line compatibility. Does this tray work with our existing tray sealing equipment, or does it require modifications? Different thermal properties, different rigidity profiles, different flatness tolerances -- any of these could mean equipment adjustments that add hidden cost to the transition. Our operations team would need to run trials before I could process a full production PO.

What this signals for the market

Setting aside my procurement checklist for a moment, Yangi's move is worth paying attention to because of what it represents structurally. Anna Altner, Yangi's founder, framed it as "the arrival of dry forming as the new benchmark in fiber-based packaging." That's a bold claim, but the underlying logic isn't unreasonable.

If dry forming can genuinely deliver the surface quality, dimensional consistency, and production speed that wet molding struggles with -- at competitive cost and industrial scale -- it changes the substitution math for food packaging. A lot of brand owners and retailers have sustainability commitments that require moving away from conventional plastic formats. The barrier hasn't been willingness; it's been the absence of fiber alternatives that can actually perform in demanding applications.

For purchasing teams, this means the "we evaluated fiber and it didn't work" conclusion from two years ago might need revisiting. The technology has moved. Whether it's moved enough for your specific application and volume requirements -- that's the evaluation worth running.

I'd say start with a sample request and a conversation with your operations team. Don't commit budget until you've seen the tray perform on your actual sealing line. And make sure your finance counterpart understands that the cost comparison needs to include the full picture: unit cost, yes, but also waste rates, changeover implications, and whatever EPR fee adjustments might apply to switching from plastic to fiber in your jurisdiction.