An ice cream co-packer makes your flavors on its own continuous or batch freezers, from a pasteurized mix, fills pints or tubs, and hardens them in its freezers. What it makes has to meet FDA's standard to be sold as "ice cream", and the plant has to hold the state dairy or frozen dessert license that lets it pasteurize and freeze. After that it's overrun, mix-ins, minimums and freezer space, which costs money every day the pints sit. In the example below, a small-batch ice cream maker selling 4,000 pints a month to grocers pays $2.95 a pint making it itself, $2.78 with a small co-packer, and $2.30 with a larger plant whose minimum is two and a half months of sales. Below is the standard, the licenses, what the co-packer needs, three quotes, and a free calculator.
The short version
- To be called ice cream, it's made from a pasteurized mix with at least 10% milkfat, at least 1.6 pounds of total solids and 4.5 pounds to the gallon.
- Below the standard, it's sold under another name, such as frozen dessert or light ice cream where it qualifies.
- The co-packer holds the state dairy or frozen dessert plant license, and registers with FDA.
- Agree on overrun, the air whipped in: it decides how much mix goes into a pint.
- Mix-ins and swirls can mean allergens; ask how the line is cleaned between flavors.
- Freezer space at the co-packer is a daily cost; order runs that sell.
- TaroStack keeps track of your pints at the co-packer, by lot and date, as a site of its own. More below.
The standard
FDA's standard of identity says ice cream is made by freezing, while stirring, a pasteurized mix of dairy ingredients, sweetened, and it contains at least 1.6 pounds of total solids to the gallon, weighs at least 4.5 pounds to the gallon, and has at least 10% milkfat and 10% nonfat milk solids, with set trade-offs between the two (21 CFR 135.110). The 4.5 pounds a gallon is a limit on overrun: whip in too much air and it isn't ice cream anymore. Ask a co-packer how it will hit the standard with your recipe, and at what overrun. How an ice cream business is planned around its base is in ice cream business plan.
The licenses
Pasteurizing a dairy mix and freezing ice cream for sale is licensed by the state's dairy or frozen dessert program, and the plant registers with FDA as a food facility (21 CFR 1.225). Some co-packers buy a ready pasteurized mix from a dairy and only freeze and fill; others pasteurize their own. Ask which, and see the license. Your pint names you, not the co-packer, qualified with words such as "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by" (21 CFR 101.5). This is general information, not legal advice.
What an ice cream co-packer will ask you for
- The recipe: base, flavorings, mix-ins and swirls by weight, and the overrun you want.
- Mix-in specs: size, how much a pint, and how they're kept from getting soggy.
- Packaging: pints, lids, sleeves or labels, and cases.
- Allergen information, since nuts, cookies and swirls bring them in, and the cleaning between flavors that follows.
- A forecast and a deposit, and a plan for freezer space and frozen freight.
What a spec sheet holds is in product specification sheet.
Three quotes compared
Ironwood Pint Co., a made-up small-batch ice cream maker in Birmingham, Alabama, I use in these examples, sells about 4,000 pints a month to grocers:
| Make it yourself | Small co-packer | Larger plant | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Run you'd order | 800 | 4,000 | 10,000 |
| Minimum run | none | 2,000 | 10,000 |
| Good pints, after the loss | 784 | 3,920 | 9,900 |
| Setup, cleaning and sanitizing | $120 | $500 | $900 |
| Fee, or your own labor, a pint | $0.90 | $0.75 | $0.45 |
| Base at 40% overrun and mix-ins | $1.29 | $1.20 | $1.10 |
| Pint, lid and label | $0.55 | $0.50 | $0.42 |
| Freight a run, frozen | $0 | $400 | $900 |
| Run cost | $2,312 | $10,700 | $21,500 |
| Months to sell the run | 0.2 | 1.0 | 2.5 |
| Freezer storage while it sells | $0 | $196 | $1,238 |
| Cost a good pint | $2.95 | $2.78 | $2.30 |
Making it itself, Ironwood runs a batch freezer five gallons at a time, 800 pints a day, five days a month. The small co-packer saves 17 cents a pint and those days. The larger plant saves another 48 cents, but asks for 10,000 pints, $21,500 out and two and a half months in its freezers at $1,238. Ice cream keeps frozen, but texture fades with time and temperature swings, so a run that sits is a run that's a little worse. What an ice cream shop keeps on hand is in ice cream shop inventory list.
Get the calculator
Download the ice cream co-packer quote calculator. One column for each quote and one for making it yourself: type the run you'd order, the minimum, the loss, the setup, the fee or your labor, ingredients, packaging, freight and storage, and the run's cost, the months it takes to sell at your sales a month, the storage while it sells, the cost of each good pint and the cash out before it sells fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Twelve flavors, each a run at the co-packer with its own lot and date, pints in the co-packer's freezer, your own and a distributor's, and grocers that want the newest dates. A spreadsheet can't say how many pints of each flavor are at the co-packer, which lot is oldest, or which stores got a run that contained an undeclared nut.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps track of your pints at the co-packer, by lot and date, as a site of its own.
The co-packer as a site. The co-packer's freezer can be a site, so the pints there are counted as yours, and moving pallets to your freezer or a distributor is a transfer, shown in transit. More than one site is on Standard at $99 a month.
Lots with dates. Each run is a batch with a lot and a date, so orders pick the earliest dates first, and a customer can carry its own minimum days left. A recall report shows which stores got each lot. How lot tracking works is in what is lot tracking.
Packaging on time. Pints, lids and sleeves come up on the reorder list in days of cover, with each supplier's lead time and minimum. How quotes compare more generally is in co-packer vs commercial kitchen.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Pints in the co-packer's freezer | Ask them | Stock at their site |
| Which lot is oldest | A guess | Earliest dates first |
| A grocer's minimum days left | Remembered | The customer's own rule |
| Which stores got lot 0918 | Search the invoices | One recall report |
Sites, transfers, lots and sales orders are on Standard at $99 a month for more than one site. 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.