How to Package Croissants for Sale: Bags, Boxes and Trays

Croissants are packaged to keep the crust crisp and the layers whole. A croissant sealed warm in plastic goes soft within the hour, so a single croissant at the counter goes in a glassine bag, which lets a little steam out. A window box of four keeps a take-home order from being crushed. Cafés buying wholesale get a corrugated tray box of 24 on parchment, delivered before they open, one box to one invoice line. And for a grocer's freezer, unbaked frozen croissants go in a freezer bag inside a box, with the baking steps on the label. Count the package per croissant, not per box: a tray of 24 costs more than a box of four, but less for each croissant. Packaged croissants carry the usual label lines, including wheat, milk and eggs. In the example below, a Kansas wholesale bakery prices four packages: 4 cents to 15 cents a croissant.

The short version

• Counter: a glassine bag, which keeps the crust crisp.
• Take-home: a window box of four, so they don't crush.
• Cafés: a corrugated tray box of 24 on parchment.
• Grocers: unbaked and frozen, in a lined box with the baking steps.
• Never seal a warm croissant in plastic.
• Label wheat, milk and eggs; frozen boxes say "keep frozen" and how to bake.
• TaroStack keeps each bake as a batch with its lot, and moves trays to cafés with a record of what arrived. More below.

The options

The label

Packaged croissants carry the label your license requires: the name, such as "butter croissants", net weight, ingredients in order of weight, allergens, wheat, milk and eggs, and your name and place of business. Frozen unbaked croissants say "keep frozen" and give the baking steps, the oven temperature and time, and a date. Croissants sold unpackaged at your own counter follow your license's rules for unpackaged food. How allergens go on a label is in food labeling requirements for small business, and how to word the date in best by date format.

An example: four options for a wholesale bakery

Flint Hills Bakery, the made-up wholesale bakery in Topeka, Kansas, I use in these examples, bakes about 300 croissants a week for its own café, two other cafés and a grocer, and lost two to crushing on the last run to the café:

Costs include a little waste. The tray box costs the most a package but only 9 cents a croissant, and it stopped the crushing, since the croissants ride flat on parchment instead of piled in bags. The grocer's frozen box costs 15 cents a croissant, on a pastry that sells there frozen and unbaked. Moving trays from the kitchen to the café is in inventory transfer form.

Get the calculator

Download the croissant packaging calculator. Two sheets: components, each part of each option with its pack price, units, how many one unit 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

Three cafés, a grocer and a counter, fresh and frozen, every morning before seven. A cost sheet doesn't say how many croissants went to which café, how many arrived whole, or how many frozen boxes are left.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps each bake as a batch with its lot, and moves trays to cafés with a record of what arrived.

Each bake a batch. A bake of croissants is a batch from its recipe, taking flour and butter off stock by their lots, with its own lot and date.

Transfers with what arrived. The bakery's own café can be a site, and trays moved there show in transit until they arrive, so two crushed croissants show up as a difference, not a mystery.

Packaging in the recipe. The tray box and parchment are part of the recipe, so a croissant's true cost includes them.

Recipes, batches and lots are on every plan, from $49 a month; more than one site is on Standard, at $99 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 croissants to sell?

In glassine bags at the counter, window boxes for take-home, corrugated trays for cafés, and lined freezer boxes for frozen unbaked croissants.

How do you keep croissants crispy in packaging?

Let them cool, and use paper or glassine instead of sealed plastic, so steam can escape.

How do you package frozen croissants?

Unbaked, frozen on trays first, then in a freezer bag inside a box, labeled with "keep frozen", the baking steps and a date.

How much does croissant packaging cost?

In the example, 4 to 15 cents a croissant, from a glassine bag to a frozen box of six.