Cookie packaging follows the sale. A single cookie at a market or café goes in a heat-sealed cello bag, which keeps it fresh and protects the icing. A shop shelf wants a resealable pouch of four or six, because it sits for days. A dozen for a preorder or a gift goes in a bakery box with a liner, which isn't airtight, so it's for cookies eaten within a few days. A café case often wants clamshells, which stack and stop big cookies breaking. Every option needs the cookies cooled completely first, food-grade materials, and the label your kitchen's license or your state's cottage law requires. Packaging runs 8 to 11 cents a cookie in the example below, where a Utah cookie maker prices four options. Below are the options, the label, the example, and a free cost calculator.
The short version
- Market and café singles: a heat-sealed cello bag.
- Shop shelves: a resealable pouch of four to six.
- Preorders and gifts: a bakery box with a glassine liner, for cookies eaten within days.
- Café cases: clear clamshells that stack and protect.
- Cool cookies completely before sealing them.
- Label with what your license or cottage law requires; a licensed kitchen uses the federal food label.
- Work the packaging into the price per cookie, not per bag.
- TaroStack counts bags, boxes and labels like ingredients, used in every batch. More below.
The options
| Option | Keeps fresh | Protects | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat-sealed cello bag | Well, once sealed | Icing and edges | One cookie at a market or café |
| Resealable pouch | Well, reseals at home | Moderately | Packs on a shop shelf |
| Bakery box with liner | Not airtight | Well | A dozen for a preorder or gift |
| Clear clamshell | Moderately | Best | Big cookies in a café case |
Soft cookies dry out in a box within days; crisp cookies go soft in humid air if the bag isn't sealed. Seal anything that will sit.
The label
A cookie maker working in a licensed kitchen uses the federal food label on packaged cookies: the name, net weight, ingredients by weight, allergens such as wheat, milk, egg and tree nuts, and the name and place of business. A home baker under a cottage law follows the state's label: in Utah, a registered cottage food producer's label carries "Home Produced" along with the product, ingredients, net quantity, allergens and business details. The federal label is in food labeling requirements for small business, and Utah's in Utah cottage food law.
An example: four options for one cookie maker
Granite Peak Cookie Co., the made-up cookie maker in Sandy, Utah, I use in these examples, bakes in a rented kitchen and sells at markets, by preorder, and to cafés:
| Option | Parts | Per cookie | Per package |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat-sealed cello bag, one cookie | Bag 6¢, label | $0.099 | $0.10 |
| Resealable pouch, four cookies | Pouch 29¢, label | $0.083 | $0.33 |
| Bakery box, a dozen | Box 84¢, liner, label | $0.076 | $0.91 |
| Clear clamshell, two cookies | Clamshell 18¢, label | $0.112 | $0.22 |
Market singles go in cello bags, preorder dozens in boxes, and the cafés get clamshells of two. At 400 cookies a week, the choice moves packaging between $30 and $45 a week, which on a $4 cookie is small but on a $2.50 café cookie is a noticeable share of what's left. How a cookie is priced is in how to price cookies, and every packaging cost in packaging cost per unit.
Get the calculator
Download the cookie packaging calculator. Two sheets: components, each part of each option with its pack price, units, how many a cookie uses and waste; and compare, each option's cost per cookie 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
Four packages means four sets of supplies to keep in stock, and each channel's cookie carries a different packaging cost. A price set once doesn't notice when the boxes go up 10%.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack counts bags, boxes and labels like ingredients, used in every batch.
Packaging in the recipe. The cello bag, the box or the clamshell is an item in each product's recipe, so every batch uses it up.
What it costs. Each batch carries its true cost, packaging included, at the price you paid, and margins show by product and by customer.
Counted on a phone. A count of bags and boxes takes minutes on a phone, even with no signal, and shows what a difference is worth before you post it.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Boxes left | Counted when you run out | Used by every batch |
| A café cookie's packaging cost | Guessed | In each batch's true cost |
| What a café order earns | Worked out once | Margin by customer |
Recipes, batches 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.