How to Package Muffins for Sale: Clamshells, Bags and Boxes

A muffin is packaged for where it will be sold. A single clear clamshell protects the top and suits a grab-and-go case; a four-pack clamshell goes to a grocer's bakery shelf; a café that sells from its own case takes muffins in a bakery bag by the dozen; and an office order goes in a box of twelve. Every package needs the full label once it's sold wrapped, with wheat, milk and eggs at least. In the example below, a Memphis muffin bakery prices four options: 9 cents to $1.36 a package.

The short version

• Package for where it's sold: wrapped single, four-pack, bag or box.
• Single clamshells protect the top in a grab-and-go case.
• Four-packs suit a grocer's bakery shelf.
• Cafés with their own case take bags by the dozen.
• Boxes of twelve go to offices.
• Wheat, milk and eggs on the allergen line.
• TaroStack puts the clamshell or box in each muffin's cost. More below.

The options

Muffins cool fully on racks before they go into clamshells, or the steam softens the tops and fogs the lid. Selling them to cafés is in how to sell baked goods to coffee shops.

The label

A wrapped muffin's label lists its ingredients in order by weight (21 CFR 101.4), the name and place of business (21 CFR 101.5) and the net quantity (21 CFR 101.105), and declares any major allergen (21 U.S.C. 343(w)): wheat, milk and eggs at least, and nuts in a banana nut muffin. Muffins sold unwrapped from a café's own case are labeled by the café as its state requires. What a muffin sells for is in how to price muffins. This is general information, not legal advice.

An example: four options for a muffin bakery

Bluff City Muffin Co., the made-up muffin bakery in Memphis, Tennessee, I use in these examples, packs about 1,500 packages a week for coffee shops, a grocer and office orders:

The coffee shop chain takes single clamshells for its grab-and-go case; the independent cafés take bags of a dozen for their own cases, which costs the bakery a fraction of a clamshell each. The grocer gets four-packs. The bakery's year is in muffin business plan.

Get the calculator

Download the muffin 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 bake is in which clamshell. When a café asks about one muffin, or a lot of flour is recalled, the muffins it went into have to be found.

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 muffins records the ingredient lots it used, gets its own lot and dates, and lot labels print for the packages.

Packaging in the recipe. The clamshells, bags and boxes are items in each muffin's recipe, 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 muffins for a coffee shop?

In single clamshells for a grab-and-go case, or by the dozen in a bag if the shop sells from its own case.

Do individually wrapped muffins need a label?

Yes: ingredients, allergens, net weight and the maker's name and address.

What allergens are in muffins?

Wheat, milk and eggs at least, and nuts if the recipe uses them.

How much does muffin packaging cost?

In the example, from about 9 cents for a café bag to about $1.36 for an office box.