How to Package Pies for Sale: Pans, Boxes and Domes

A pie is baked in its pan and sold in it, so packaging starts with the pan: aluminum is cheap and sturdy, an ovenable paper pan looks better on a table. Then it goes in a window box, which stacks and shows the top, or a clear dome container that snaps onto a base and shows the whole pie. Mini pies go one to a small clamshell. Fruit pies keep at room temperature; cream and custard pies need the fridge and say so. In the example below, a Hudson Valley pie baker prices four options: 51 cents to $1.38 a package.

The short version

• The pie is sold in the pan it was baked in.
• Aluminum pans are cheap; ovenable paper pans look better.
• Window boxes stack and show the top.
• Clear dome containers show the whole pie.
• Cream and custard pies need refrigeration: label them.
• Wheat, milk and eggs on the allergen line, nuts if used.
• TaroStack puts the pan and box in each pie's cost. More below.

The options

Pies cool fully on racks before boxing, or the steam softens the crust and fogs the window. Making them by the dozen is in how to make pies in bulk.

The label

A box'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 in most crusts and fillings, and tree nuts in a pecan pie. A cream, custard or pumpkin pie also says "Keep refrigerated". What a pie sells for is in how to price pies. This is general information, not legal advice.

An example: four options for a pie baker

Orchard Hill Pie Co., the made-up pie baker in Kingston, New York, I use in these examples, bakes about 300 pies a week in the fall for a farm stand, a market and holiday orders:

The farm stand takes aluminum pans in window boxes, which stack on its shelf; holiday orders get paper pans, which customers like on a table. Mini pies go to the market in clamshells. The bakery's year is in pie business plan.

Get the calculator

Download the pie 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 box. When a customer asks about one pie, or a lot of flour is recalled, the pies 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 pies records the ingredient lots it used, gets its own lot and dates, and lot labels print for the packages.

Packaging in the recipe. The pans, boxes and labels are items in each pie'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 homemade pies for sale?

In the pan they were baked in, cooled, then in a window box or a clear dome container, labeled with ingredients and allergens.

What is the best pie box?

A window box that stacks and shows the top suits most sales; a clear dome shows the whole pie in a case.

Do cream pies need to be refrigerated when sold?

Yes: cream, custard and pumpkin pies need refrigeration, and the label says so.

How much does pie packaging cost?

In the example, from about 51 cents for a mini pie to about $1.38 for a paper pan in a window box.