Beef Jerky Packaging Bags.

An oxygen barrier first, because oxygen is what turns cured meat flat and grey. A PET, aluminium and PE foil laminate is our default for a fatty product with a long date. A high-barrier metallised structure at heavier gauge costs less and gives a shorter achievable shelf life.

The film handles what tries to get in. An oxygen absorber sachet dropped in at fill handles what was sealed in with the product.

Dried meat has hard, sharp edges that puncture thin film in transit, so we run the laminate at 0.14 to 0.20 millimetres. A thinner gauge would save a little on cost and lose bags to pinholes in the carton. Once a pinhole opens, the barrier is gone and the absorber cannot keep up.

The heavier film also gives the bag a substantial feel that suits craft positioning.

A press-to-close zipper sits below a tear notch, so the first opening is clean and every opening after that reseals. Jerky is eaten across several sittings, which makes the zipper close to mandatory on anything above a single-serve pack. The notch is placed above the zipper track so the tear never runs through it.

Single-serve formats can drop the zipper and use a plain heat seal with a notch.

Matte lamination dominates craft meat snacks, and kraft paper over a foil liner is the second most common face. Both read artisanal, and hot foil stamping sits well against either. Gloss lamination has more impact in mass grocery aisles.

A clear window is a trade: it costs barrier, so keep it small, away from the seals and off the faces where fat contacts the film.

A 4 by 6 inch pouch carries a 2 ounce fill and a 5 by 8 inch pouch carries 4 ounces, with stand-up versions for shelf display. Jerky is light for its volume, so the bag is sized by how much space the pieces take, not the weight alone. Stand-up formats add a bottom gusset to the flat dimension.

If your pieces are cut long, tell us and we add length so they lie flat.

The floor is 500 bags for each size and finish. After 1,000 the tiers begin, and a single run can reach 100,000. A 2 ounce and a 4 ounce bag are quoted as two runs even when they share artwork.

Single-serve formats follow the same minimum count.

From proof approval, a standard run needs 7 to 10 business days. Where a trade show or a retailer reset is fixed, the rush service closes the job in 5 to 7 business days. Samples reach you in 5 to 7 business days, and we suggest sealing product in one with an absorber to check the pack over a few weeks.

Sample fees are credited against production. Delivery is nationwide within the USA.

A foil laminate is not kerbside recyclable, and for a fatty long-dated product the barrier is the reason to accept that. Kraft over foil looks natural but is still a multi-layer structure. A mono-material PE bag recycles in PE streams and gives a shorter shelf life, which suits jerky sold fresh at markets rather than through distribution.

We would keep the foil for retail and consider mono PE only where the product turns quickly.