Ice Cream Labels
Ice cream is labelled in the wrong order compared with the rest of the freezer aisle. Most frozen product is packed, frozen, then labelled. Ice cream is filled and labelled at something close to room temperature and then dropped to around thirty below in a hardening tunnel within the hour. The adhesive has to make its bond before that happens and then survive the shock.
Ice cream labels on tubs and lids
A pint or a quart tub is usually paperboard with a thin polyethylene coating on it, and that coating is what your label is actually sticking to, not the board. It is smoother and lower energy than people assume, and it is cold and slightly damp by the time the pack reaches a case. Lids are worse again, because they are handled directly and they flex when the tub is opened.
Our adhesive is FDA approved and food-grade, it applies down to −20 °F and holds to −60 °F, which covers a hardening tunnel and anything a retail cabinet will do afterwards. On the facestock we stay synthetic: BOPP or polyester rather than paper, because a tub going in and out of a freezer sweats and paper goes soft at the edges.
Flavour ranges and seasonal runs
Ice cream is a flavour business, and flavours come and go. A creamery might run fifteen lines all year and another six only between May and September, and the seasonal ones are exactly the runs you do not want to over-order. There are no minimums here, so a limited edition can be a run of two hundred without anybody making a face about it. Keep one base artwork, change the flavour panel, and print batch codes variable on the same pass.
Getting the colour right
Ice cream artwork lives on soft colours, and soft colours are the ones that drift. A pistachio that comes back grey or a strawberry that goes orange is obvious on shelf next to the tub beside it. We print in-house in Henderson, so you get a proof on the real stock before we run anything and we hold the same reference between repeat orders. Our PMS colour vault keeps it consistent months later.
Custom printed or blank DIY ice cream labels
Either. Full colour printed by us when the artwork is settled, or blank freezer-rated sheet labels if you are a small-batch maker writing flavours on as you go. Free samples first, on your own tub, in your own freezer. What your pack is required to declare is a question for your regulatory adviser rather than for us.
Learn more
Popular label formats
Rolls, sheets and die-cut shapes — paper, coated paper, waterproof poly and more.
Need custom ice cream labels?
Tell us your product, size and quantity — we'll recommend the right material and send free samples.