A jam co-packer cooks your fruit and sugar to your recipe in steam kettles, fills hot jars, caps and labels them. Jam is friendlier to co-pack than most canned foods: FDA's acidified foods rules don't cover jams, jellies and preserves, so more co-packers can take it on. What jam does have is a standard of identity: to be called a jam or preserve, it has to hold a minimum share of fruit to sugar and reach a minimum of soluble solids, which is why a low-sugar recipe is sold as a "fruit spread". In the example below, a tart cherry preserves maker selling 2,500 jars a month pays $3.24 a jar making it itself, $2.92 with a small jam co-packer, and $2.33 with a larger plant whose minimum is three months of sales. Below is the standard, low-sugar recipes, what the co-packer needs, three quotes, and a free calculator.
The short version
- A jam or preserve has at least 47 parts fruit to 55 parts sweetener for fruits like cherries and berries, 45 parts for others.
- The finished jam has at least 65% soluble solids, measured with a refractometer.
- Below those, sell it as a fruit spread or another name that describes it.
- Jams, jellies and preserves aren't acidified foods under FDA's rules, which widens the choice of co-packers.
- Agree on set, sweetness, fruit pieces and fill weight with the co-packer.
- Jam keeps a long time, so a bigger run is mostly a cash question.
- TaroStack keeps track of your jars at the co-packer, by lot, as a site of its own. More below.
The jam standard
FDA's standard for fruit preserves and jams requires a mixture of not less than 47 parts by weight of fruit to each 55 parts of sweetener for the Group I fruits, which include cherries, blueberries, blackberries and grapes, and 45 parts for other fruits, and a finished soluble-solids content of at least 65% (21 CFR 150.160). A co-packer will check your recipe against that ratio and test the solids of each batch with a refractometer. Jams, jellies and preserves are also outside FDA's definition of acidified foods (21 CFR 114.3), so the co-packer doesn't need an acidified foods registration for them, though it still registers as a food facility. This is general information, not legal advice. How a jam business is planned is in jam business plan.
Low-sugar recipes
A recipe with less sugar than the standard allows, or sweetened with fruit juice, can't be called jam or preserves; it's sold under a name that describes it, often "fruit spread". Low-sugar spreads also set and keep differently: they may need a different pectin, and some need refrigeration after opening. Ask the co-packer what it's made before, and test the shelf life of its version.
What a jam co-packer will ask you for
- The recipe by weight: fruit, sweetener, pectin, acid, and the cook end point.
- Fruit specs and supply: fresh, frozen or purée, and who buys it; tart cherries, for example, are often bought frozen.
- Specs: soluble solids, set, fruit pieces, fill weight.
- Jars, lids and labels, or approval for the co-packer to buy them.
- A forecast and a deposit, timed to the fruit season if the co-packer buys fruit.
What a spec sheet holds is in product specification sheet.
Three quotes compared
Old Mission Preserves, a made-up tart cherry preserves maker in Traverse City, Michigan, I use in these examples, sells about 2,500 nine-ounce jars a month. A jar takes 0.45 pound of tart cherries at $2.20, with sugar and pectin, $1.29:
| Make it yourself | Small jam co-packer | Larger preserves plant | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Run you'd order | 600 | 2,500 | 8,000 |
| Minimum run | none | 1,000 | 8,000 |
| Good jars, after the loss | 588 | 2,463 | 7,920 |
| Setup, or kitchen rent | $150 | $250 | $500 |
| Fee, or your own labor, a jar | $0.86 | $0.70 | $0.38 |
| Cherries, sugar and pectin, a jar | $1.29 | $1.25 | $1.15 |
| Jar, lid and label | $0.78 | $0.75 | $0.62 |
| Freight a run | $0 | $200 | $500 |
| Run cost | $1,908 | $7,200 | $18,200 |
| Months to sell the run | 0.2 | 1.0 | 3.2 |
| Storage while it sells | $0 | $0 | $217 |
| Cost a good jar | $3.24 | $2.92 | $2.33 |
Making it itself, Old Mission cooks three batches a day, 600 jars, about four days a month. The small co-packer saves 32 cents a jar and those days. The larger plant buys cherries at its own volume and saves another 60 cents, with three months of preserves on its shelves and $18,200 out. Preserves keep well, so for Old Mission the larger run is a cash question. How a standard cost compares to a batch's actual cost is in standard costing example, and how co-packer quotes compare in co-packer vs commercial kitchen.
Get the calculator
Download the jam 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 jar 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
Frozen cherries bought at harvest, some at the co-packer and some in your freezer, preserves made in both places, and jars and lids ordered in pallets. A spreadsheet can't say how much fruit is at the co-packer, which harvest lot went into a run, or how many cases are on their shelves.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps track of your jars at the co-packer, by lot, as a site of its own.
The co-packer as a site. The co-packer's premises can be a site, so the frozen cherries and jars you send are a transfer, shown in transit until they arrive, and the finished cases there are counted as yours. More than one site is on Standard at $99 a month.
Runs with lots, and solids on the record. Each run is a batch with a lot that records the cherry lots it used, and a batch record form can carry your own fields, such as the soluble solids reading, with limits. A recall report shows which customers got each lot. How lot tracking works is in what is lot tracking.
Fruit and jars on time. Cherries, jars and lids come up on the reorder list in days of cover, with each supplier's lead time and minimum.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Cherries at the co-packer | Ask them | Stock at their site |
| A run's soluble solids | A note on the run sheet | A field on the batch, with limits |
| Which harvest lot is in a jar | Unknown | Lots recorded on the run |
| Jars for the next run | Found short | Reorder list in days of cover |
Sites, transfers, batches and lots 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.