Honey Co-Packers: Labeling Rules, Packing Costs, Quotes

A honey co-packer, often called a honey packer, takes honey in buckets or drums, warms it gently, filters it and fills it into jars, squeeze bottles or sticks with your label. Packing honey adds little to its cost; the honey itself is most of the price of a jar, so a co-packer is about time, volume and formats you can't fill yourself, like honey sticks or creamed honey. The rules are about the label: only honey can be called honey, a floral name needs support, and a blend with any other sweetener has to say so. In the example below, a honey producer selling 2,000 jars a month pays $5.28 a jar bottling itself, $5.38 with a small honey packer and $5.30 with a larger mainland packer. Below is the labeling rules, testing, what a packer needs, three quotes, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Honey packers warm, filter and fill honey; some cream it, make sticks or pack bulk pails.
• The honey is most of a jar's cost; packing is a small part.
• Only pure honey is labeled "honey"; honey mixed with another sweetener is a blend, and says so.
• A floral name, like "Clover Honey", needs support that the flower is the chief source.
• Flavored or infused honey isn't labeled as plain "honey".
• Buying honey from other beekeepers to pack? Know your sources; adulterated honey is a real risk.
• TaroStack keeps each beekeeper's honey as its own lot, through to the jars. More below.

What can be labeled "honey"

FDA's guidance on honey labeling says a product of honey and another sweetener, such as sugar or corn syrup, can't be labeled with the name "honey"; it's labeled as what it is, for example "Blend of honey and corn syrup", with each ingredient in the ingredient list. A honey with added flavor isn't plain "honey" either. A label may name a plant or blossom, such as "Orange Blossom Honey" or "Wild Flower Honey", if there's information to support that it's the chief floral source (FDA). A packed jar names you, qualified with words such as "Packed for" or "Distributed by" (21 CFR 101.5). This is general information, not legal advice. How a honey business is started is in how to start a honey business.

Know where the honey comes from

The same guidance treats honey that's been stretched with a cheaper sweetener and sold as honey as adulterated. A beekeeper packing its own honey knows what's in the bucket; a brand buying honey from others to pack under its label needs to know its suppliers, keep each one's honey traceable, and test when in doubt. A co-packer that blends honey from several sources should be able to say which went into each run.

What a honey packer will ask you for

• The honey: buckets or drums, the source, and any test results.
• How you want it: liquid or creamed, how fine a filter, and how warm it may be heated.
• Containers and labels: jars, bears, squeeze bottles, sticks or pails, and labels for each.
• Fill weights and a forecast, and whether the jars come back to you or ship to stores.

Three quotes compared

Mauka Hives, a made-up honey producer on Oʻahu I use in these examples, now sells about 2,000 twelve-ounce jars a month, from its own hives and honey bought from neighboring beekeepers. A jar holds 0.75 pound of honey, $4.13 at $5.50 a pound bulk:

The three are within 10 cents of each other, because the honey is the same $4.13 in every jar. Bottling itself, Mauka spends two days a month in its honey house. The island packer costs a dime a jar more and gives those days back. The mainland packer's lower fee and cheaper jars are eaten by $1,800 of freight for drums out and cases back. For Mauka, a packer earns its place for formats it can't make, honey sticks and creamed honey, not for plain jars. How quotes compare more generally is in co-packer vs commercial kitchen.

Get the calculator

Download the honey packer quote calculator. One column for each quote and one for bottling it yourself: type the run you'd order, the minimum, the loss, the setup, the fee or your labor, the honey, packaging, freight and storage, and the run's cost, the months it takes to sell at your sales a month, the storage while it sells, the cost of each good jar and the cash out before it sells fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Honey from your own hives and three neighbors', each in its own buckets, some packed at home and some at a packer, jars of wildflower and macadamia blossom, and stores asking where this jar's honey came from. A spreadsheet can't keep each beekeeper's honey traceable to the jars it filled.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps each beekeeper's honey as its own lot, through to the jars.

Each bucket a lot. Honey from each beekeeper, and from each of your own harvests, is received with its own lot and fields of your own, such as the floral source and any test result, so its origin travels with it.

Bottling records the lots. A jar of honey is a recipe of honey, a jar, a lid and a label, so each bottling takes them off stock and records which honey lots it used. A store's question, or a supplier's problem, leads straight to the jars. How lot tracking works is in what is lot tracking.

The packer as a site. The packer's premises can be a site, so the buckets you send are a transfer, shown in transit until they arrive, and the cases there are counted as yours. More than one site is on Standard at $99 a month.

Lots, recipes and batches are on every plan, from $49 a month; more than one site is on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

What does a honey packer charge?

In the example, 40 cents a jar at a small packer and 22 cents at a larger one, plus a setup, containers and freight. The honey itself is most of a jar's cost.

Can I label a honey blend as honey?

No. Honey mixed with another sweetener is labeled as a blend, such as "Blend of honey and corn syrup", with each ingredient listed.

Can I call my honey wildflower or clover honey?

You can name the plant or blossom if you have information supporting that it's the chief floral source of the honey.

Should a beekeeper use a honey packer?

When time, volume or a format you can't fill yourself makes it worth it. In the example, plain jars cost about the same packed by Mauka or a packer.