How to keep hot chicken wings warm and prevent them from getting soggy after packaging? Circle K in the US launches new packaging that balances moisture retention, crispiness, and fog prevention.

Food You Should Know

American convenience store chain Circle K has partnered with Frito-Lay to launch Flamin' Hot spicy chicken wings. Packaging company ProAmpac developed a special paper fiber box for the product, addressing issues such as moisture loss, softening of the outer skin, and fogging of the display window that often occur when keeping hot food warm. The new packaging combines oil-resistant materials, an anti-fog film, and transparent windows extending to both sides of the box, allowing consumers to directly see the product. This also reflects how competition in the convenience store hot food market has expanded from taste to packaging and display experience.

Written by the Editorial Department

The ready-to-eat food market in North American convenience stores continues to heat up, and packaging suppliers are starting to develop new solutions to meet the demand for keeping hot food warm. ProAmpac recently designed a special paper fiber packaging box for Circle K's Flamin' Hot spicy chicken wings, a collaboration with PepsiCo's Frito-Lay. The box aims to balance oil resistance, heat retention, maintaining food moisture and crispness, and features a fog-proof transparent window, allowing consumers to see the chicken wings directly from both sides of the box.

ProAmpac points out that as convenience stores and supermarkets continue to expand their ready-to-eat food businesses, the company has observed that the demand for insulated hot food packaging has surpassed that for refrigerated ready-to-eat food packaging. This has also transformed packaging from a simple container into a crucial element influencing food quality, presentation, and purchase intentions.

Chicken wings are a bestseller not just because of their taste! The packaging also helps maintain crispiness and moisture.

Adam Grose, Executive Vice President of ProAmpac, said that Circle K has clear requirements for both the appearance and actual performance of the packaging. The design team spent several months developing and adjusting the packaging structure according to Circle K's new chicken wing recipe, hoping that the product can still be sold after being placed in a hot food warming device.

The challenge of hot food packaging lies in balancing diverse quality requirements. Take chicken wings as an example: the packaging must be oil-resistant and heat-retaining, while also preventing moisture loss that could cause the meat to dry out, and maintaining a crispy skin. If the packaging design is incompatible with the heat-retaining equipment, even if the food is of good quality when it's fresh out of the oven, it may still affect the consumer's eating experience after a period of heat preservation.

In addition, food safety is also an important design consideration. Convenience stores must manage the temperature at which hot food is kept warm and the time it can be kept warm for sale, in accordance with the relevant guidelines of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ProAmpac therefore needed to verify whether chicken wings could maintain the minimum temperature required for hot food preservation under specific hot food display cases and packaging conditions, while avoiding obvious drying or deterioration of the meat.

Hot food display cases are revolutionizing packaging design! The microenvironment inside the box presents a new challenge.

The evolution of hot food warming equipment has also made packaging design more complex. Traditional equipment mostly uses heating plates to maintain the temperature of food, while in recent years, convection display cases that use hot air to surround the food have emerged. The different heating methods of the equipment will change the temperature and moisture environment around the food, thereby affecting the condition inside the packaging.

Grose points out that the microenvironment surrounding food has become a new challenge that hot food packaging must address. Packaging suppliers cannot simply test the heat resistance of the container itself; they also need to consider the impact of the interaction between the food and the equipment on moisture, texture, and shelf life.

This chicken wing box uses food-grade paper fiber as the base material and polypropylene (PP) material for the inner layer. ProAmpac stated that the material selection mainly considers the temperature requirements when keeping hot food warm, and PP is suitable for hot food packaging; the film used for the transparent window must also be evaluated to ensure that it can still maintain its function in a hot cabinet environment.

The packaging does not intentionally contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). However, the structure of the paper fiber container with the plastic inner layer material also shows that the choice of materials for food packaging still needs to strike a balance between heat resistance, barrier properties, and usage requirements.

Transparent windows extend from the top to both sides! This makes the chicken wings' appearance a direct sales driver.

Besides heat preservation and food quality, whether the packaging can clearly present the appearance of the product is also a key design consideration for this chicken wing box.

ProAmpac uses an anti-fogging coating to reduce fogging of the transparent window in hot food environments, and extends the window design to both sides of the box, forming a waterfall-style window structure that allows for viewing the food from different directions. Compared to the common design where only the top of the box has a window, this method allows consumers to see the chicken wings inside more clearly.

Grose stated that consumers often make purchasing decisions based on the appearance of food, especially for convenience stores where consumers are likely to grab and go or engage in impulsive purchases. When products are displayed in hot food showcases, consumers typically cannot select items from a menu and wait for preparation, as they would at a fast-food restaurant. Therefore, the packaging's ability to directly present the food's appearance is particularly important in attracting purchases.

This gives the transparent window two functions: on the one hand, it allows consumers to confirm the product details, and on the other hand, it becomes part of the product display and marketing. For convenience store hot food that needs to be purchased in a short time, the packaging itself is an integral part of the sales process.

More than 40,000 units sold per week! Convenience store ready-to-eat foods drive up demand for packaging.

Behind the innovation in hot food packaging lies the growth momentum of the convenience store ready-to-eat food market. Alimentation Couche-Tard, the parent company of Circle K, has achieved same-store sales growth for five consecutive quarters, and the company points out that the performance of the ready-to-eat food business is one of the key factors driving this growth.

According to CEO Alex Miller in the earnings call, Flamin' Hot spicy chicken wings have sold more than 40,000 units per week since their launch in July 2026, as of early September, demonstrating the continued expansion of the market opportunity for hot food products in convenience stores.

For ProAmpac, the expansion of its convenience store hot food business also means that packaging suppliers must be involved in product development earlier, rather than waiting until the food formula and sales equipment are finalized before starting to look for containers. From the heating method of the hot food display case and the changes in food moisture, to the heat resistance and anti-fog performance of the packaging, all need to be considered in the early stages of design.

Grose also suggests that if businesses plan to introduce hot food display cases or expand their hot food sales strategy, they should collaborate with packaging suppliers from the early stages of development to simultaneously evaluate food recipes, heating equipment, packaging materials, and display requirements. The Flamin' Hot Chicken Wings case demonstrates that competition in the convenience store ready-to-eat food market extends beyond taste and price; it also involves maintaining quality and presentation through packaging, and increasing consumer incentives to purchase from hot food display cases.

Review Editor: Lin Yuting