Start from the portion, not from the shelf
Most first orders arrive as a list of capacities copied from a competitor's website. That is the wrong end of the problem. Work from the menu instead: write down every dish you sell, the portion you actually serve it in, and whether it travels hot, cold or frozen. The capacities then fall out of the menu, and the number of SKUs usually falls too.
This table maps the common menu jobs onto containers in our catalogue. Every capacity is a real item, and the item numbers are the ones your quotation will use.
| Capacity | Typical menu job | Example item |
|---|---|---|
| 280 ml | Dessert, single side, tasting portion | 280 ml round bowl with flat cover (HJ-AB) |
| 300 ml | Side salad, dip, children's portion | 300 ml round container (Y300) |
| 340 ml | Soup, porridge, small noodle serve | 340 ml American soup cup (HJ0801) |
| 500 ml | Single side dish or a small rice | 500 ml square box (FH718), 500 ml round container (Y500) |
| 650 ml | Single-portion takeaway main | 650 ml rectangular container (HJ818D) |
| 700 ml | Rice or noodle portion | 700 ml round container (A700) |
| 750 ml (26 oz) | Standard takeaway main | 750 ml rectangular container (HJ138D) |
| 790 ml | Large soup, pho, ramen | 790 ml American soup cup (HJ0802) |
| 850–910 ml | Fuller main plate | 850 ml square box (FH729), 910 ml square box (FH78) |
| 1,000 ml | Rice plus main, or a set meal split two or three ways | 1,000 ml round bowl (HJ7801D); 1-, 2- and 3-compartment containers (HJ-728-1, HJ-728-2, HJ-728-3) |
| 1,070 ml | Combination meal in a square format | 1,070 ml square box (HJ132) |
| 1,250 ml | Sharing portion, bento, transparent presentation | 1,250 ml round container (A1250); 2- and 3-compartment transparent containers (HJ-AB-2, HJ-AB-3) |
| 1,500 ml | Family portion, saucy dishes | 1,500 ml round container (A1500), deep takeaway box (EY) |
| 1,750 ml | Large sharing portion | 1,750 ml round container (A1750), 1,750 ml flat-cover container (Y1750) |
| 2,000 ml | Family meal, catering tray | 2,000 ml round container (Y2000), 2,000 ml round bowl (HJ1201D) |
| 3,550 ml (120 oz) | Salad bar, buffet, bulk catering | 120 oz translucent round bowl (HJ2401D) |
Millilitres or ounces — and to which line?
Portion sizes are a market habit. Our orders for the United States, Canada and the Middle East lean towards larger mains and family formats, while Japan and northern Europe tend towards smaller, more precisely portioned dishes and more compartment splits. We mould for the US, Canada, Japan, Greece, Finland and Arab countries, so both habits are familiar on the factory floor.
Two practical points. First, print the unit your market reads: our catalogue quotes some items in both, such as 750 ml (26 oz) and 3,550 ml (120 oz), because a US buyer looks at ounces and a European buyer looks at millilitres. Second, agree what the capacity refers to — filled to the rim, or to a fill line below it. A container described as 750 ml at the rim holds noticeably less at a safe transport level, and that difference is what your customer sees when the lid comes off.
Compartments buy menu space without new SKUs
A compartment container lets one body carry several menu builds. Our HJ-728 series is the clearest example: the one-compartment, two-compartment and three-compartment versions all share a 17.2 × 13.8 × 6.8 cm footprint and 1,000 ml capacity. Same lid, same carton position, same bag. You stock one lid and one carton size and sell three products. The transparent 1,250 ml HJ-AB-2 and HJ-AB-3 do the same job when the customer needs to see the food.
The trade-off is real: compartments take volume away from the largest portion, and a two-compartment 1,000 ml body does not hold 1,000 ml of rice. Decide which dish is the hero before you split the base.
Keep the lid range small
Lids are where a tidy range turns into a warehouse problem. Two design habits keep the count down. On the drink side, our 8 oz cup sits on an 80 mm rim while the 12 oz and 16 oz cups share a 90 mm rim, so one lid covers the hot-drink range. On the food side, round lids are moulded at 120 mm, 145 mm, 150 mm and 185 mm, and the wide RO-series covers catering bowls.
The rule we give buyers: choose sizes that share a lid diameter, and keep the number of lid diameters in the range to two or three. Every extra lid diameter is another mould, another carton and another line on your picking list.
What each size costs in container space
Freight is the second half of the price. The table below shows carton volume per 1,000 pieces, calculated from the pieces per carton and CBM printed in our catalogue.
| Item | Capacity | Pcs / carton | CBM / carton | CBM per 1,000 pcs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HJ-AB | 280 ml | 500 | 0.0482 | 0.096 | |||
| Y300 | 300 ml | To be confirmed | 500 | 59.5 × 23.5 × 38.5 cm | 0.0538 | 1263 | To be confirmed |
| FH718 | 500 ml | 150 | 0.0231 | 0.154 | |||
| HJ0801 | 340 ml soup cup | 240 | 0.0413 | 0.172 | |||
| HJ138D | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | — | — | — | — | — |
| FH729 | 850 ml | 150 | 0.0282 | 0.188 | |||
| FH78 | 910 ml | 150 | 0.0322 | 0.215 | |||
| HJ132 | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | — | — | — | — | — |
| A1500 | 1,500 ml | 200 | 0.0661 | 0.331 | |||
| Y1750 | 1,750 ml flat cover | 200 | 0.0693 | 0.347 | |||
| HJ2401D | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | — | — | — | — | — |
Read the last column, not the capacity. A 280 ml side-dish bowl moves 0.096 CBM per 1,000 pieces; the 750 ml main moves 0.188 — roughly half the container space for the same thousand pieces. If you ship a mixed container, the small side-dish sizes are the cheapest volume you will load, and the large sharing formats are the most expensive. Note too that the biggest bowl on the list, at 3,550 ml, moves less volume per thousand than a 1,750 ml flat-cover container, because its carton is packed more efficiently. Size and freight cost are not the same thing.
A 40HQ realistically carries about 68 CBM of cartoned goods, so those figures convert straight into pieces per container: 0.108 CBM per 1,000 pieces means roughly 630,000 of the 300 ml size in a full container. The arithmetic and a worked example are in our buyer's checklist.
Weight and handling
Gram weight does not track capacity in a straight line — the wall design does. In our range the 300 ml round container weighs 13.5 g, the 750 ml rectangular one 35.5 g, and the 3,550 ml catering bowl 30.5 g. Lighter parts cost less to ship and are easier for counter staff to handle in stacks, but they also flex more. If your delivery route involves bags on a scooter, test the stack height before you commit; that is what a sample pack is for.
How many sizes for a first range?
Six to ten SKUs is a sensible first range: two mains (a single portion and a sharing portion), two sides, one soup or noodle format, one compartment container, and one catering bowl if you sell into catering. Keep every size inside two lid diameters and you can stock the whole range on two pallets.
Our typical default MOQ is 20,000 pcs per size — a commercial default, not a catalogue fact, and the figure on your quotation is the one that applies. That is why a narrow first range beats a wide one: it gets you to market with real container volumes instead of a warehouse of samples.
Test the size before you commit
- Order a sample pack of the two or three sizes you are unsure about, not all of them.
- Fill each with the real dish at the real serving temperature, then carry it the way your driver carries it.
- Check the lid after twenty open-and-close cycles on the same container.
- Time one counter assembly: a size that saves two seconds per order matters more than a cent per piece.
- Confirm the container fits your existing bags, racks and the shelf you photograph for your menu.
Then write the chosen sizes, the capacities and the lid item numbers into your specification sheet. Start from the catalogue to see every capacity, carton and CBM side by side, or send us your menu and we will map it for you.