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- Verified Buyer
I purchased the Southern Champion trays for when my teens have friends over and for feeding the animals raw or messy foods. It’s great for serving snacks, popcorn and even hotdogs and other fairly simple foods. It’s ok for dry foods only, just stay away from the wet foods.I frequently mix up freeze dried foods for my dog, mixing in warm water and letting it sit. I like the trays because I can just get rid of them afterwards and not worry about cleaning up after raw food. I have purchased the Boardwalk clay coated in the past and never had an issue with leaking. When I fixed my dogs dish, after sitting for a bit, I found the counter pooled with murky water. It had leaked all over. I decided to do a side by side test, placing a small amount of water in both Southern Champion and the Boardwalk food trays, within seconds the SC started soaking up the water, within 30 seconds it was leaking and flimsy. The Boardwalk held the water for 3 minutes before I noticed a small spot in the corner starting to leak but still held its shape and didn't fall apart.I think the bottom line is that Southern Champion trays are great if you want them for simple dry based foods, nothing with any liquid. Kids snacks, dry animal foods, even holding arts and crafts supplies, they are great. If it’s wet food you need it for stick to the Boardwalk clay coated.These are perfectly fine, but they don't compare well to the Dixie polycoated food trays, which are also available on Amazon. These SC trays don't stand up nearly so well to greasy food and they're actually smaller for the same poundage. The reason is that the Dixie trays draw a three-pound line well below the top of the tray, while these SC trays apparently hold three pounds of food only if you fill them right up to the brim. The Dixie trays are also made from a heavier weight of paper and I think they're more attractive than these brown SC trays.I will note that on the date I'm posting this review, these SC paper trays are a lot cheaper than the Dixie trays, so if price is a priority for you, these SC trays are OK.I love these food trays, they are so handy for snacks, parties, feeding animals, etc. They have lots of uses. However a damaged box should only mean a slightly damaged box and possibly a few damaged trays. I get that. But never did the order suggest 250 trays would be missing! I order the damaged cases because they usually save me about $10.00 per case and the trays are normally all usable. This time however, an entire tray of 250 were missing. But Amazon as always made the order right and credited my account for the missing trays. I'll have to be more careful in the future, what company I order these trays from. Other than the inconvenience of having to contact Amazon for the credit, I would given 5 stars!Purchased for use with wet cat food. I was tired of constantly washing pet food bowls (and then scrubbing the sink) and didn't want them in the sink where I put the family's dishes. These are pretty small but will hold a small (3.5 oz) can of pet food or ½ a large (5.5 oz) can. (Neither cat usually eats more than that at a time). I had to buy a rubber mat to put them on as the get pushed all over the floor if I don't. They do leak when wet which kind of defeats the whole purpose of wet food but it is convenient to throw them away after feeding. Definitely more sanitary. ***Full disclosure: I buy the pate type food and mix/cut it with additional warm water to incorporate more water into my cat's diet. On the few occasions I've not done that, there is no leaking but the bowls do get very floppy from the little moisture in the pate.I took two pics to include: the first shows size in my hand and the second next to a 5.5 oz can of food for comparison.Probably won't buy again.These are fantastic, and I am pretty sure we'll go through all 500 of them quickly, because they're very handy. This large 5lb size fits a large burger bun (like those from Costco) plus at least one side dish, like potato salad, baked beans, or chips, without overcrowding. I use checkered grease paper I use these trays to feed juicy canned food to my cats. I add a few ounces of water to make the food extra moist. The trays hold the water long enough, without getting soggy, for the cats to devour the food and water. I like using the disposable trays so I don't have to wash bowls so often. I also use the trays to feed the feral cats that come to my feeding station that way they have clean bowls daily. Saves me the time I would have spent washing bowls. I bought the 1/2# size and this seems to be a useful size for my purposes.I like these trays a lot. But they are the smallest #1 boats I've ever seen. Just a tad small. Which could be good! But...I use these for feeding a cat. First I put 1/2 can of wet food in the tray, and after the cat gobbles it up I put in 1/4 cup of dry food (which is also promptly gobbled). I have *not* experienced any leaking or falling apart from the wet food, although the clay-coated paper does appear wet when it gets wet (I've also seen that the tray dries fairly quickly after the wet food has been eaten...not that I re-use these). I wouldn't, say, use these trays for soup, but they work wonderfully for this purpose.I love that these are compostable!
