Pizza dough is packaged around one fact: it keeps rising. A fresh dough ball in the fridge slowly grows and gives off gas, so a take-home ball goes in a deli tub with room to rise, not a tight bag that balloons. Frozen dough stops rising, so grocers get balls bagged one by one, two to a box, with thawing steps on the label. Restaurants buying fresh dough every day get it in returnable dough trays of 12, which come back with the next delivery and cost about a cent a ball over their life. Restaurants farther away get frozen cases of 24. The label carries the name, net weight, ingredients, wheat as the allergen, your name and address, and how to keep it: "keep refrigerated, use within" a date for fresh, "keep frozen" and how to thaw for frozen. In the example below, a New Haven dough maker prices four packages: 1 cent to 37 cents a ball.
The short version
- Fresh take-home: a deli tub with room for the ball to rise.
- Frozen for grocers: each ball in its own freezer bag, two to a box, thawing steps on the label.
- Fresh for restaurants: returnable trays of 12, collected on the next delivery.
- Frozen for restaurants: a lined case of 24.
- Count the package per ball; a returnable tray costs about a cent a ball over its life.
- Label wheat, the weight, and "keep refrigerated" with a use-by date, or "keep frozen" and how to thaw.
- TaroStack keeps each mix as a batch with its lot and date, and counts the trays that went out. More below.
The options
| Option | Keeps it | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh ball, deli tub | Room to rise, refrigerated | Counter take-home |
| Frozen two-pack, box | Frozen, each ball bagged | Grocer freezers |
| Restaurant tray of 12 | Proofing in the tray, refrigerated | Daily fresh delivery |
| Frozen case of 24 | Frozen, lined | Restaurants farther out |
The label and the date
Packaged dough carries the label your license requires: the name, such as "Neapolitan-style pizza dough", net weight, ingredients in order of weight, wheat as the allergen, and your name and place of business. Fresh dough says "keep refrigerated" and a date to use it by; frozen dough says "keep frozen" and gives the thawing steps, such as overnight in the fridge, then an hour at room temperature. Restaurant trays carry a tag with the mix date. How to word the date is in best by date format, and frozen packaging in general in how to package frozen food for sale.
An example: four options for a dough maker
Wooster Street Dough Co., a made-up pizza dough maker in New Haven, Connecticut, sells about 400 packages a week: balls to take home from its counter, trays to six nearby pizzerias, frozen cases to two farther away, and a grocer that asked for frozen two-packs:
| Option | Parts | Per package | A ball | 400 packages a week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh ball, deli tub | Tub and lid 24¢, label 12¢ | $0.37 | $0.37 | $146.88 |
| Frozen two-pack, box | 2 freezer bags 16¢, box 38¢, freezer label 19¢ | $0.75 | $0.37 | $298.48 |
| Restaurant tray of 12 | Tray $15 over 150 trips, tag 1¢ | $0.12 | $0.01 | $46.90 |
| Frozen case of 24 | Case $1.20, liner 10¢, label 12¢ | $1.45 | $0.06 | $579.76 |
Costs include a little waste. A take-home ball and a grocer's ball cost the same 37 cents to package; a restaurant's ball in a returnable tray costs about a cent, as long as the trays come back. Wooster Street counts its trays each Friday, and a pizzeria that's holding six pays for them. How restaurant accounts work is in how to sell to restaurants.
Get the calculator
Download the pizza dough 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
Daily mixes, fresh and frozen, six pizzerias and a grocer, and a stack of trays that's always shorter than it should be. A cost sheet doesn't say which mix went to which pizzeria, or where the missing trays are.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each mix as a batch with its lot and date, and counts the trays that went out.
Each mix a batch. A mix of dough is a batch from its recipe, taking flour, salt and yeast off stock by their lots, with its own lot and date.
Orders with lots. Each pizzeria's order records the lots it took, and the delivery note prints them.
Trays as stock. Returnable trays can be an item in stock, counted on a phone, so the Friday count shows how many are out.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Which mix went to a pizzeria | Remembered | Lots on each order |
| Trays out with customers | A tally on the wall | Trays counted as stock |
| What a ball costs | Worked out once | True cost from the recipe |
Recipes, batches and lots 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.