Food packaging is also concerned with modern supply chains. This would involve safety and preservation, sustainability, and consumer behaviour-findings with which food packaging addresses various types of packaging materials. One of the consumer-favoured choices and popularity stands among all kinds of packaging as cardboard boxes. In this paper, theories will discuss terms involving customized cardboard boxes usage related to food preservation theories, sustainable development models, and consumer perception theories.

Preservation Theory and Food Safety

Preservation theory inhibits food from its environmental factors like moisture, oxygen, and microbial invasion. Cardboard, particularly because of its treatment or coating, can act as good barriers and sustain the shelf life of food products. According to the Barrier Theory of Packaging, such materials reduce the interaction between food and hazards outside it. Proper engineered cardboard boxes can build up a protective microenvironment for their contents and can reduce spoilage rates during quality maintenance when transported and stored.

Key points:

Microbial Barriers: Multilayer design and internal linings, although cardboard is porous, can prevent microbial invasion.

Physical Protection: Mechanical harm is avoided through the rigidity of cardboard so that structural integrity is maintained.

Customization: Cardboard can have ventilation slots, coatings, and insulation openings for specific applications in food preservation.

Theory of Sustainable Development and Environmental Impact

From a Sustainable Development Theory perspective, packaging must be made in such a way that it reduces its environmental footprint while not inhibiting any one of its functional roles. In this respect, cardboard is lying extremely well with sustainability principles because it is biodegradable and often recyclable. Most importantly is under the Circular Economy Model, which states that materials are not disposed of as waste but kept in use for as long as possible. Cardboard fits here because it provides opportunities for reuse (e.g. secondary packaging) and is part of the recycling loop.

Key points:

Biodegradability: Cardboard can degrade naturally without becoming a polluter with toxic residues, as in the case of plastic.

Resource Efficient: Made from renewable resources like trees, paper provides a basis for resource management when sourced properly like being FSC certified.

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA): Comparative studies often indicate that cardboard takes a slightly lower share of carbon footprint than many plastic alternatives, especially while recycled.

 Consumer Behavior Theory and Perception

Without internal cues, packaging influences purchasing decision and their perceptions of quality in products according to Consumer Behavior Theory. Cue Utilization Theory gives an explanation in that consumers derive quality perception from the external cues (packaging material and design) associated with it. Most time cardboard boxes are associated with eco-friendliness, artisanal quality, and trustworthiness. Moreover, branding printed on cardboard can enhance the attractiveness of the product by communicating messages of sustainability and authenticity.

Perceived Quality: Indeed the eco-conscious consumers are mostly going to link the high quality brands with cardboard package in contrast to the ethical brands.

Equate Feelings: It adds to that harvest scene feel, that genuine setting which draws that emotional response from the customer towards the item.

Measuring the Medium: Cardboards boxes wholesale can build enormous amounts of printed matters which include the articles on the nutritional depravings, ingredients, conditions under which they were source, and the brand values, thus promoting transparency. 

 Problems and Theoretical Limitations 

Indeed, cardboard packaging has some severity in theoretical critique:

Moisture Concern: Cardboard might soak water under the condition if it remains uncoated in order to resist water and therefore causing a higher risk of contamination in food.

Resource Usage: Part of resource usage in making cardboard is renewability, as this resource usage includes water, energy, forests-all to be gathered responsibly.

End of Life Control: The recycling systems are not uniform all over the globe which poses a challenge to real sustainability of cardboard packaging.

As per the Theory of Constraints, all systems are limited by the weakest link; for cardboard, this means that problems like water resistance and structural endurance under humid conditions are in need of continuous improvement.

Conclusion. 

Preservation theory, sustainable development theory, and consumer behavior theory all undergird the usage of cardboard boxes for food packaging. While cardboard is endowed with great positive attributes in food protection quality, sustainable use, and consumer choice issues, it continues to need attention in moisture sensitivity and resource use. Through innovative and responsible uses, cardboard packaging may remain vital to the developmental effort in sustainable and functional food systems.