Custom Printed Chub Packaging for Sausage, Mince and Dough Rolls

What is chub packaging?

A chub is a sausage-shaped pack made from a single web of film. The film is folded into a tube around a horn, sealed along the back, filled with product and closed with a metal clip at each end.

The result is a firm round roll with no air inside. Because the product is packed under pressure, the film sits tight against it and the pack holds its shape in a chiller or freezer.

Chub film is what we supply. It arrives on rolls printed with your design and a registration mark, ready to run on a chub machine or to be cut and clipped by hand.

Which products use chub packs?

Butchers and meat processors were the first, and the pack is still the standard for sausage meat and mince. Raw pet food brands moved to chubs because the roll freezes solid and cuts into portions.

If your product needs a flat pouch or a bag rather than a tube, the same print methods are available on our printed film rolls for form fill seal.

• Sausage meat, mince and burger mix from butchers
• Liver sausage, black pudding and haggis
• Raw and frozen complete pet food rolls
• Cookie dough and pastry rolls for bakeries
• Polenta, cheese logs and butter rolls
• Fish paste and seafood mixes for processors

How is a chub formed and clipped?

The whole process happens in a few seconds on a vertical chub machine. Smaller producers do the same job with a hand clipper and a filling stuffer.

1. Film feeds off the roll and over a forming collar into a tube.
2. A back seal runs the length of the tube, lap or fin style.
3. The first clip closes the bottom of the tube below the horn.
4. Product is pumped in under pressure to the set weight.
5. A second clip closes the top and the knife cuts the chub free.
6. The chub drops into a crate for chilling or blast freezing.

What film width do I need for a 500 g chub?

A 500 g chub of sausage meat is often a 75 mm flat tube width, which gives a roll around 48 mm across and 180 mm long. The flat width is the measurement your machine needs, not the diameter.

Flat width comes from the circumference of the finished roll plus the back seal allowance. The length comes from the fill weight, the product density and the clip spacing.

The table shows how fill weights map to film widths for a dense product such as mince. Lighter products such as cookie dough need a slightly wider tube for the same weight.

Films for chilled, frozen and ambient chubs

Chub film does a different job from pouch film. It is stretched round a filling horn, pressurised by the product and then gripped by a clip, so puncture strength and seal strength matter more than stiffness.

Chilled meat chubs use a multi-layer PE or nylon / PE film that stays tough at fridge temperature. Frozen pet food needs a film that does not go brittle and crack at the clip when the roll is dropped.

Food-contact, high-barrier and compostable film options are available on request and confirmed on your quote. The layer structures are set out in our barrier and laminate film guide.

Printing a design that runs round the pack

A chub has no front and back. The design wraps the full circumference, so a repeating pattern with a clear brand panel works better than a single front-facing layout.

Each pack length carries a registration mark printed along one edge. The machine reads that mark to cut and clip in the same place every time, so your logo lands centred on every chub.

We print plain, one colour, two colour or full colour, and our designers set the repeat length to match your clip spacing. Bleed, marks and files are covered in our artwork guide for printed packaging, and a free proof comes before any film is printed.

Clips, tear strips and how the customer opens it

The clips are aluminium and come with your clipping machine. We size the film so the clip grips a clean, even gather of film at each end.

Customers open a chub by cutting the film with a knife, usually through the middle for a portion or at one end for the lot. A printed cut-here line helps and costs nothing extra on the artwork.

A tear strip or peel tape can be added on request for products such as cookie dough that are opened by hand.

Common problems on a chub line

Film wander is the usual one. If the roll is slit off-centre, the web tracks sideways over the collar and the back seal moves. We slit to your width and wind it square to the core.

Missed registration marks come next. A mark printed too faint or too close to the design edge is not read by the sensor, and the cut lands on the logo. We print a dense mark in a clear lane.

Overfilling causes the third problem. A chub filled past the set weight stretches the film at the clip and splits when it is dropped. Set the weight from the film, not the other way round.

Chub packaging for raw pet food makers

Raw dog food sold frozen is almost always a chub. The roll freezes solid, stacks in a freezer and the owner cuts a slice for each meal. A 500 g or 1 kg roll in a bright printed film is the norm.

Treats, kibble and dried food do not suit a chub and go in a zipper pouch. Those sit on our pouches for treats and dry pet food page.

Is chub packaging right for a small butcher?

Yes, if you already stuff sausages. A hand clipper, a length of film tube and the stuffer you own are enough to pack mince and sausage meat into chubs for the counter.

Printed film is worth it once the chub leaves the shop, for farm shop fridges, box schemes or wholesale to pubs. A plain film with a label is fine while you test the format.

Compare this with the pouch styles in our spout and retort pouch range if your product is wet rather than a firm roll.

How to order printed chub film

Tell us the product, the fill weight, your flat tube width if you know it, the machine or clipper you use and the core size it takes. Add the number of chubs you expect to run.

We quote per order, from £0.25 per unit, confirmed in writing. Our designers send a free proof of the repeat and the registration mark before printing.

Production takes 4–6 business days after approval and free tracked UK delivery takes 2–3 business days. Misprints or damage reported within 10 days with photos are reprinted or refunded. Send the details on our chub film quote request page.