Tray and Air Fryer Liners, Pre-Formed Greaseproof

Liners for baking trays, gastronorm pans and air fryer baskets

The photos show three shapes. A stack of kraft rectangles with pleated corners, the kind that drops into a gastronorm pan. A square with a crimped rim, shown beside a small inset of it sitting in an air fryer basket. And a single oval cup in a red mottled stock, which is what coloured paper looks like once it is formed.

All of them are the same idea as a cupcake case, scaled up. The paper is pressed into a tray with a base and walls, so it holds its shape in the pan without clips, folds or grease.

School kitchens, care homes, pub kitchens, cafés and anyone running an air fryer on a counter uses them. One liner per cook, the pan stays clean, and the washing up at the end of service drops by half.

Which liner fits an air fryer basket?

Measure the inside of the basket across the base, not the rim. Most single-drawer air fryers take the 200 mm square; the compact ones take the 160 mm. Dual-drawer machines usually take the 160 mm square in each side.

The gastronorm sizes are named for the pan they drop into, so a kitchen that runs on gastronorms can order by pan without measuring. Anything else is a custom form; the tray and liner size guide shows what to measure.

Do air fryer liners block the air?

Not when they are used with food on them. An air fryer cooks by blowing hot air around the basket, and a liner with a joint of chicken or a layer of chips holding it down lets the air pass over the top as normal.

The problem is an empty liner during preheat. With nothing weighing it down, the paper lifts, flaps and can touch the element. Put the food in first, then switch on.

The walls of a pre-formed liner are lower than the basket sides, so air still circulates up and over. Flat sheets of parchment cut to size are the ones that get sucked into the fan, not formed trays.

How the paper handles hot fat

Greaseproof oven grades hold to about 200°C, which covers roast potatoes, sausages, a tray of wings and every air fryer setting. Fat pools in the liner instead of baking onto the pan, and it tips away with the paper.

Sugar is the harder test. A sticky glaze or a jam-topped traybake sets hard on cooling, so lift the liner out while the bake is still warm or let it cool fully and peel.

The paper browns a little at the rim where it is closest to the element. That is cosmetic. If the rim is going black, the liner is too tall for the basket or the food was not holding it down.

Crimped rim or pleated corners?

The square liners have a crimped rim, a tight ripple running all the way round. It flexes, so the same liner suits baskets that are a few millimetres bigger or smaller, and it grips the basket wall.

The rectangular liners have flat walls and pleated corners. They sit tight into the square corners of a gastronorm pan and give a straight edge, which matters when you are portioning a traybake into 24 equal pieces.

If you cook in air fryers, buy squares. If you cook in gastronorms or on baking trays, buy rectangles. A kitchen with both tends to end up with a carton of each.

Kraft, white or coloured stock?

Kraft is the natural brown in most of the photos. It hides fat marks and scorch at the rim and suits a pub kitchen or a care home where nobody sees the liner but the cook.

White is for anything a customer sees: a bakery traybake sold in the liner, a sharing tray of wings carried to a table. It shows marks more, so the heavier weight is the one to pick.

Coloured stock, like the red oval in the last photo, is formed on request. It is a counter product, not a kitchen one, and it works for a market stall or a café display where the liner is part of the look.

Can a tray liner carry a printed logo?

Yes, on the outside wall, in one to four food-safe ink colours. The crimped rim of a square liner breaks up a design, so the flat walls of the rectangular liners print better.

A café that sells a brownie slab in a half-gastronorm liner, or a chip shop serving a sharing tray, gets a branded tray for the cost of a plate and the ink. Kitchens that only use liners behind the pass have no reason to print.

The guide to printing on greaseproof paper covers colours on kraft, Pantone matching and the artwork we need.

Traybakes and gastronorm pans in a school or care-home kitchen

A full gastronorm liner turns a scratched steel pan into a clean baking surface in seconds. The routine below is how a school kitchen runs a flapjack or a cottage pie topping for 60.

1. Pull a liner from the stack and open the pleated corners with your thumbs.
2. Drop it into the gastronorm pan and press the base flat into the corners.
3. Fill, spreading right to the paper walls so the edges bake level.
4. Bake at the usual temperature; the liner does not change the time.
5. Lift the whole bake out by the liner, portion it on the board, and bin the paper. The pan goes back on the rack unwashed.

Mistakes to avoid with tray and basket liners

Every one of these shows up as a complaint about the paper and every one is avoidable. The first and the third are the ones to brief new staff on.

• Preheating an air fryer with an empty liner inside; it lifts and touches the element.
• Buying by the rim measurement; the liner is sized to the base.
• Using a liner under the grill, where the element sits a few centimetres above the rim.
• Choosing a tall rectangular liner for a shallow basket and letting the walls fold over the food.
• Stacking hot liners of fatty food on top of each other to cool; the fat soaks the one underneath.
• Reusing a liner that has had raw chicken in it.

Packing and ordering

Liners come nested in cartons. A thousand of the 200 mm squares is a couple of boxes; a thousand full gastronorms is a short pallet, and both go in a dry store. The minimum order is 1,000 per size.

Send the size, the shape, the stock colour and the quantity and we quote within one working day. Plain liners have no proof stage, so after you accept the quote the order goes to dispatch, with free tracked delivery to any UK mainland address and payment by invoice.

If you are unsure between two sizes, say so on the quote. Samples of the standard forms can be arranged so you can drop one in the basket before you commit to a carton.