Technomic is the premier authority in food service industry intelligence. When TOPPAN commissioned Technomic for custom research in food service packaging, they expected sobering data and opportunity areas to segment and approach. What the actual food service operators reported in their Technomic survey caught the TOPPAN team by candid surprise.
The best in quality and value. First. #1.
Surely this is a statistical anomaly. TOPPAN Packaging is hardly a year old, how would operators both know and report such positive feedback? Moreso rated against formidable competitors like Amcor, Anchor, Berry, GPI, Pactiv, Huhtamaki, and Sabert?
So, TOPPAN Packaging did what any reasonable team does with numbers that flattering: they went looking for an error.
But this is Technomic data, there isn’t an error. There’s an explanation, and one that does not dismiss the rating.
Survey Format
Each respondent rated the suppliers they currently buy from. As such, the survey format softens the influence of non-purchaser opinion, because you must be a current buyer to rate your supplier. There is not a rack-and-stack list of competitors to rank order in this Technomic analysis—operators simply reported how satisfied they were with their supplier, among various attributes. Once a statistically significant quantity of replies was gathered, those ratings were then aggregated into a chart for comparison.
Put simply, the #1 position for value and quality means to say, those who buy from TOPPAN Packaging rate TOPPAN higher in value and quality than other buyers rated their respective suppliers.
You Love TOPPAN Packaging, Too
Survey savviness helps hold some market dynamics constant. But the data remains the data. Why did operators respond so generously about TOPPAN as their food service packaging supplier?
That’s the explanation we hope to convey:
The dipping sauce cups you dip your favorite nuggets in, that’s TOPPAN.
The peel & reseal technology that keeps your favorite cookie brand crispy after five opens and gives tamper evidence on retail shelves, that’s TOPPAN, too.
The SmartSeal® lidding that keeps your berries and leafy greens fresher, longer—you guessed it, TOPPAN Packaging.
And not just food for people! The custom, sustainable pet food pouches and award-winning toys you buy your fuzzy friends—they use TOPPAN Packaging.
We’re Already at the Table
Given that food service operators are not going to answer surveys based on pet food or cookie freshness in their home pantries, they need to see it in their line of work.
TOPPAN’s portion control dipping sauce cups and lidding are a staple across the fast-food industry. Housing a variety of sauces in the biggest franchises you can list from memory, right at this moment. We’ve customized our dipping cups for cultural moments spanning crazed cartoon-inspired Szechuan-sauce fandom, to the gold-glory of world sporting events. TOPPAN Packaging, the humble U.S. converter driving foot traffic to restaurants and giving portion-controlled servings of joy to consumers.
Beyond the inherent fun and adventure of sauce cups is a noble food service channel TOPPAN serves—elder care. In elder care, we serve communities where portioning is clinical, and where a lid tight enough to survive a tray line still has to open for a resident with arthritis who would rather not ask for help. Those two requirements pull against each other. Resolving them is a tolerance problem, solved with tooling and process control. Moreover, our dual-ovenable CPET and microwaveable trays and bowls ease the culinary prep burden on senior living facilities who are still enduring a staffing crisis—nearing a 14% decline in employment since 2020.
Beyond that, we’ve started service to theme parks — outdoor service in direct sun, food eaten one-handed with no table in sight, order quantities that would look like a typo in any other channel.
Behind those three sit the rest of the portfolio. Clamshells and two-piece containers for takeout and grab-and-go. Lidding films, rollstock, and pouches for complex lamination requirements to improve shelf live, allow retort heating, and more. Heat-sealing machinery for those who want to bring packaging under their own operation. In-house design and tooling for custom programs, and sustainable options (both recycled content and source reduction) for operators facing EPR fees and state mandates.
Our packaging is formed on U.S. soil, which, as we wrote recently about CPET, means no import duty on the finished package and no ocean between your supplier and your fill line.
#1, Believe it, and Come Find Out Why!
Not an anomaly. Just a group of people who know exactly what they’re buying.
Here’s the other half of that survey. Ask an operator to name a food service packaging supplier cold — no list, no prompting — and about one percent say TOPPAN. One percent. Of the eight brands rated, we are comfortably the least known.
Not enough operators know us, but the ones who do, put us first. We’d like to fix the first half of that sentence.
Because there are corners of this channel where we’re deep, and corners where we’re a name you have genuinely never heard. As such, consider this TOPPAN Packaging’s virtual hello to all full-service takeout, supermarket take-and-bake, home meal replacement, college and university dining, hotels and banquets, catering, transportation and airlines.
Let’s connect and find out what makes TOPPAN Packaging’s quality and service, #1!
Source data: The rating section cites TOPPAN’s commissioned Technomic study (custom research #20371, April 2026).
Technomic, 2026: base = operators who currently purchase from each supplier (TOPPAN n=66); ranked first of eight suppliers on product quality (64% “very good”) and value for money (58%, “very good”). TOPPAN quality +2 percent points higher than 2nd highest supplier rated, TOPPAN value +5 percent points higher than 2nd highest supplier rated