Nut Butter Co-Packer: Standards, Allergens and Quotes

A nut butter co-packer roasts, grinds and fills your peanut, almond or cashew butter into jars, squeeze packs or bulk pails. Two things set nut butter apart from other foods a co-packer makes. Peanut butter has a federal standard that limits what can be added to the peanuts. And nuts are major allergens that travel: a line that runs almond butter after peanut butter carries peanut, and a roast that isn't validated leaves the risk of Salmonella that peanut butter outbreaks have made famous. In the example below, a nut butter maker selling 2,500 jars a month pays $3.88 a jar grinding it itself, $3.59 with a small co-packer, and $2.83 with a larger plant whose minimum is four months of sales. Below is the standard, safety and allergens, what the co-packer needs, three quotes, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Peanut butter is roasted peanuts, with seasonings and stabilizers no more than 10% of the weight and fat no more than 55%.
• Roasting is where Salmonella is killed; ask how the co-packer validates its roast and keeps roasted nuts clean after.
• Peanuts and tree nuts on the same line carry over; ask what runs on it and how it's cleaned.
• Your label names you with "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by", and declares the nut by name.
• Oil separation, grind and salt are specs to agree before the first run.
• A larger run saves money if you can sell it before the oil and flavor fade.
• TaroStack keeps track of your jars at the co-packer, by lot, as a site of its own. More below.

The standard

FDA's standard says peanut butter is made by grinding shelled, roasted peanuts, to which seasoning and stabilizing ingredients may be added, as long as together they're no more than 10% of the finished weight, and the fat content is no more than 55% (21 CFR 164.150). A spread with more added sugar, oil or flavor than that is sold as a "peanut spread" or a similar name, not peanut butter. Almond, cashew and other nut butters don't have a federal standard of their own. Your label names you, qualified with words such as "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by" (21 CFR 101.5). This is general information, not legal advice. How a nut butter business is planned is in nut butter business plan.

Safety and allergens

Roasting is the step that kills Salmonella on raw peanuts, so a co-packer's food safety plan treats it as a control, with a time and temperature it can show works, and keeps roasted nuts away from raw ones afterwards. Ask to see how. Then the allergens: peanuts and each tree nut are declared by name, and a line that grinds almonds after peanuts can carry peanut into the almond butter. A co-packer may run them on separate equipment, schedule them with full cleans between, or label shared-line products truthfully. If your almond butter is sold to people avoiding peanuts, that answer decides the co-packer. How to keep track of allergens by product is in allergen matrix template.

What a nut butter co-packer will ask you for

• The recipe by weight: nuts, roast level, salt, sweetener, any oil, and the grind.
• Nut specs and supplier, or approval for the co-packer to buy them, with certificates.
• Product specs: texture, oil separation you'll accept, fill weight, jar and lid.
• Allergen needs: what else may run on the line, and what you'll print.
• A forecast and a deposit, since the co-packer may buy nuts by the tote for your run.

What a spec sheet holds is in product specification sheet.

Three quotes compared

Red Oak Nut Butters, a made-up peanut and almond butter maker in Little Rock, Arkansas, I use in these examples, sells about 2,500 twelve-ounce jars of peanut butter a month:

Grinding itself in a shared kitchen, Red Oak fills 600 jars a day, about four days a month. The small co-packer saves 29 cents a jar and those days, and its setup includes the allergen clean before Red Oak's run. The larger plant saves another 76 cents, but asks for four months of peanut butter and $27,600 up front. Nut butter keeps, but oil separation and roasted flavor fade over months, so the larger run trades money for a little freshness. How quotes compare more generally is in co-packer vs commercial kitchen.

Get the calculator

Download the nut butter co-packer quote calculator. One column for each quote and one for grinding 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

Peanut butter at the co-packer, almond butter still ground in your kitchen, snack packs from a third place, and jars going to grocers and online orders. A spreadsheet can't say how many jars are at the co-packer, which peanut lot went into a run, or which stores to call if a peanut supplier recalls.

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 jars and lids 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. Each run is a batch with a lot that records the peanut lots it used, so a supplier's recall shows which runs used the lot and which customers got them. A lot with a question over it can be held, kept out of what can be sold. How lot tracking works is in what is lot tracking.

Jars on time. Jars, lids and labels come up on the reorder list in days of cover, with each supplier's lead time and minimum.

Sites, transfers, lots, holds and recalls 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.

Questions people also ask

What is the legal definition of peanut butter?

Ground roasted peanuts, with seasonings and stabilizers no more than 10% of the weight and fat no more than 55%, under FDA's standard.

Can a co-packer make almond butter on the same line as peanut butter?

It can, but peanut can carry over. Ask what runs on the line, how it's cleaned between products, and what the label will say.

What is the minimum order for a nut butter co-packer?

In the example, 1,200 jars at a small co-packer and 10,000 at a larger plant.

How much does it cost to co-pack peanut butter?

In the example, $3.59 a jar at a small co-packer and $2.83 at a larger plant, including the peanuts, jar, label and freight.