How to Package Butter for Sale: Wraps, Cartons, Tubs

Butter takes up smells and turns in light, so it's packaged in something that blocks both. The classic pound is parchment inside a printed carton; foil-lined wrap around an 8-ounce roll keeps light out and looks handmade; a tub with a lid suits whipped or salted spreadable butter; and a printed butter wrapper carries the brand on the wrap itself. What it's called matters: butter is at least 80% milkfat by law. In the example below, a Long Island creamery prices four options: 12 cents to 34 cents a package.

The short version

• Pack butter against light and smells.
• Parchment in a printed carton: the classic pound.
• Foil-lined wrap suits an 8-ounce roll.
• Tubs suit whipped and spreadable butter.
• Butter means at least 80% milkfat.
• Butter is made in a licensed dairy plant.
• TaroStack puts the wrap in each batch's cost. More below.

The options

Butter is kept cold from churn to shelf; a roll left warm at a market sweats and picks up smells. Why butter from a home kitchen isn't a cottage food is in can you sell butter from home.

The label

Butter is made only from milk or cream, with or without salt and coloring, and has at least 80% milkfat (21 U.S.C. 321a). The label lists ingredients (21 CFR 101.4), the name and place of business (21 CFR 101.5) and the net weight, and declares milk (21 U.S.C. 343(w)). The wrap itself has to be cleared for food contact, in food contact packaging regulations. This is general information, not legal advice.

An example: four options for a creamery

North Fork Creamery, the made-up creamery on Long Island, New York, I use in these examples, churns cultured butter and sells about 200 packages a week at its farm shop and to a co-op:

The co-op takes the carton pound; the farm shop sells the foil-wrapped roll, which customers buy as a gift. The printed wrapper waits until the salted and herb butters are settled. What the creamery's cheese costs is in how to price cheese.

Get the calculator

Download the butter packaging calculator. Two sheets: components, each part of each option with its pack price, units, how many a package uses and waste; and compare, each option's cost per package and per week at your volume, with notes. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

A cost sheet doesn't know which churn is in which carton. A co-op asking about one pound of butter needs its batch and the cream it came from.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps each batch's lot, the packaging in its cost, and where every case went.

Each batch a lot. Each batch of butter records the ingredient lots it used, gets its own lot and dates, and lot labels print for the packages.

Packaging in the recipe. The cartons and wraps are items in the recipe for each roll and pound, so every batch uses them up at the price you paid, and the count of what's left stays current.

Where it went. Each customer's order records the lots it got, so one recall report shows every customer a batch reached.

Lots, batches, recipes and true cost are on every plan, from $49 a month. 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

How do you package butter for sale?

In parchment and a carton, foil-lined wrap or a tub, labeled with its name, ingredients, milk, net weight and your name and address.

What is the best wrapping for butter?

Something that blocks light and smells: parchment in a carton or a foil-lined wrap.

What makes butter butter?

By law, at least 80% milkfat, made only from milk or cream, with or without salt and coloring.

How much does butter packaging cost?

In the example, from about 12 cents for a printed wrapper to about 34 cents for parchment and a carton.