Some food retailers - primarily superstores and hypermarkets - pack foodstuffs for their customers at their fresh-food counters and in their own meat processing units. For this, they use open-cell trays made of expanded polystyrene (EPS), as these are able to absorb liquids such as those which drain from fresh meat. In open-cell trays, liquid passes through holes into the interior of the tray and is retained there by a special absorption layer.
This eliminates the need for the absorbent inlays which were previously used, thus improving the packaging’s appearance and handling at the POS.