Tortillas are packaged by who's buying. A grocer's shelf wants a zip-top bag with a label, because people use a few tortillas and reclose the rest; a heat-sealed bag costs less but opens once. A printed bag puts your brand on the pack, at the price of a big minimum order. A restaurant takes a dozen wrapped in butcher paper, used the same day. In every case, cool the tortillas completely before they go in a bag, or the steam turns to moisture and mold. Handmade tortillas without preservatives keep only a few days, so the pack needs a date and storage instructions along with the label your license requires. In the example below, a Tucson tortilla maker prices four options: 4 cents to 19 cents a pack. Below are the options, the label, the example, and a free cost calculator.
The short version
- Grocers: a zip-top bag with a label, so customers can reclose it.
- Lowest cost sealed pack: a heat-sealed bag.
- Your brand on the bag: a printed zip-top, once your sizes are settled.
- Restaurants: a dozen in butcher paper, for use that day.
- Cool tortillas completely before bagging.
- Date every pack and say how to store it; handmade tortillas without preservatives keep only days.
- Label with what your license requires, and count the bag and label in each pack's cost.
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and date, and sells the oldest first. More below.
The options
| Option | Reseals | Brand | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zip-top bag and label | Yes | On the label | Grocery shelves |
| Heat-sealed bag and label | No | On the label | Markets, lowest cost |
| Printed zip-top bag | Yes | On the bag | A settled product in many stores |
| Paper wrap, a dozen | No | A tag | Restaurants, same day |
The label and the date
A tortilla maker in a licensed kitchen uses the federal food label on packaged tortillas: the name, net weight, ingredients by weight, allergens, wheat for flour tortillas, and the name and place of business. A best-by or use-by date and "keep refrigerated", if that's how your tortillas keep, tell the store and the customer what to do. How to word the date is in best by date format, and the label in food labeling requirements for small business.
An example: four options for a tortilla maker
Saguaro Salsa Co., the made-up salsa and tortilla maker in Tucson, Arizona, I use in these examples, sells flour tortillas in packs of 10 at markets and to grocers, and by the dozen to restaurants:
| Option | Parts | Per pack | 300 packs a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zip-top bag and label | Bag 12¢, label | $0.16 | $47.74 |
| Heat-sealed bag and label | Bag 3¢, label | $0.07 | $20.90 |
| Printed zip-top bag | Bag 18¢, date sticker | $0.19 | $57.83 |
| Paper wrap, a dozen | Paper 3¢, band and tag | $0.04 | $12.24 |
The grocers' packs go in zip-top bags with a label; the market packs are heat-sealed; restaurants get paper. On a pack that costs $3.25 to make and sells to a grocer for $5.25, the zip-top bag is 16 cents of the $2 left. How the tortillas themselves are costed is in tortilla business plan, and every packaging cost in packaging cost per unit.
Get the calculator
Download the tortilla packaging calculator. Two sheets: components, each part of each option with its pack price, units, how many a pack uses and waste; and compare, each option's cost per pack 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
Tortillas keep days, not weeks. A grocer that gets last week's packs pulls them and asks for credit, and a notebook doesn't say which batch went to which store or which packs are about to run out of date.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and date, and sells the oldest first.
Each batch dated. A batch of tortillas gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it, so the date on the pack comes from the batch.
Oldest first. First-expired-first-out is the default, so the oldest packs go out first, and a forecast shows what will expire unsold.
Packaging in the recipe. The bag and label are items in the pack's recipe, so every batch uses them up at the price you paid.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| The date on a pack | Written by hand | From the batch's lot |
| Which packs go out first | Remembered | First-expired-first-out |
| Bags left | Counted when you run out | Used by every batch |
Lots, expiry, recipes and batches 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.