Recipe scaling and product development
Whether you make two quarts or 200 gallons, you’ll want the end product to taste the same. When making a food product for the retail or wholesale market, consistency is key. How ingredients are measured in your initial recipe provides the basis for recipe scaling. The University of Massachusetts Amherst explains how to scale your recipe in this video.
Always think about how you can simplify a recipe. Can any ingredients or production steps be eliminated? Small savings now can have a big impact down the road. Be sure you know what is in each of the ingredients you purchase. For example, premade bread crumbs may contain eggs or dairy, which may be a problem if you’re aiming to produce a vegan product.
Confirm that large quantities of the ingredients needed can be directly sourced from manufacturers. As you scale up, plan to order ingredients in commercial sizes and quantities, so product development and production stays on track. You’ll receive better pricing in bulk quantities compared to supermarket prices. Having a backup supplier is always a good idea.
It’s important to be able to trace the sourcing of each ingredient in your recipe as part of the required FDA Recall Plan. A secure and reliable ingredient supply chain is essential.
Knowing the cost of production is also important for making decisions about sales and marketing. Refer to the video on ingredient cost calculation. Having a recipe in weights rather than volume is critical even for liquid ingredients, to ensure consistency in viscosity and flavor.
It’s also important to think about the portion and size of your product and how many flavors there might be. To help think through these decisions, consider producing in a shared-use kitchen or meeting with a business planning consultant. A food and beverage consultant can assist with recipe and product development and other topics, such as nutritional analysis, pH testing, and food safety plans.
Determining how long your product retains optimal flavor and color is necessary for quality control and customer satisfaction. Product life can be extended in a few ways:
- Adding an acidic ingredient like lemon juice or citric acid
- Controlling water activity
- Using a process such as refrigeration, dehydration, freezing, or canning (water bathing)
- Selecting a certain type of packaging
Check out the shared use kitchens, food and beverage consultants, and laboratories listed in Chapter 10 for additional information.
Additional Resources
Where to make your product
Residential kitchens
Foods produced in a residential kitchen must be inspected and licensed by the local board of health. Only certain foods and production processes are allowed in a home kitchen.
What types of food are permitted in a residential kitchen?
In general, you can make and sell foods in a residential kitchen that can be safely held at room temperature. These foods are sometimes called “cottage food products” and include confections, baked goods, jams, and jellies. Think fruit pies, cakes, cookies, and candy. Click for more information about which foods can be made. Every municipality has its own interpretation of these regulations, so check with your local board of health to learn what is allowed.
Wholesale Residential Kitchen operations must be inspected and licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Food Protection Program for sale of foods that can be safely held at room temperature and foods that do not require refrigeration to retail stores, grocery stores, and restaurants.
What are some examples of prohibited foods?
Retail or Wholesale Residential Kitchens may not prepare finished products that require hot or cold holding for safety, including meat or fish that is raw or heat-treated, certain cut produce including melons, leafy greens, and tomatoes. Prohibited foods need to be refrigerated or frozen or require some particular process to make them shelf-stable. Some examples include cream-filled pastries, cheesecake, custard, cut fruit and vegetables, tomato and barbecue sauces, pickled and fermented products, relishes, anything with meat, salad dressings, juices, nut milks, and ice cream.
Click on the links below for additional information:
- Good Manufacturing Practices for Food (105 CMR 500.000) from the Massachusetts Department of Health
- Residential Kitchen Question and Answers page, or downloadable PDF from the Food Protection Program, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Setting up your residential kitchen
If you’re producing an allowed food product in a residential kitchen, you are required to get licensed by your local board of health. They will inspect your kitchen. The annual permit usually costs between $50 and $100. You will also want to have insurance for your business operations.
Here’s a list of local boards of health contacts throughout Massachusetts. Or Google your town name and “board of health” to find contact information.
Even if you are operating out of your home kitchen, you can invest in processing equipment to help in producing your product(s) efficiently and more cost effectively. You can find appliances at new or used kitchen equipment stores. Pre-owned ovens, mixers, and other equipment are usually less expensive than new ones.
In addition to producing your product, its packaging can require specific equipment. Heat sealing a package of granola or adding a tamper-proof seal to a jar of jam are examples. Consider including various phases in your business plan that account for production scaling and large equipment investments. Remember to add sealed containers to your equipment inventory for storing ingredients. You’ll find a list of Massachusetts kitchen equipment businesses in Chapter 10.
Renting out space in a church or community center’s licensed commercial kitchen is another option to consider as you’re scaling up. Although it may have large-capacity refrigeration and cooking equipment, it doesn’t mean it’s a licensed facility, so be sure to check. Licensed commercial kitchens are required to contain hand sinks, two and three-bay sinks, and ducted hoods with fire suppression, for example.
Shared-use commercial kitchens
Another way to produce food products is in a shared commercial kitchen. These licensed food production facilities allow you to rent kitchen space to prep, cook, clean up, package, label, and store your products. Making your food in a commercial kitchen can save you from investing in costly equipment, infrastructure, and other supplies. You’ll still need a permit from the local board of health when working in one.
Some shared-use commercial kitchens offer other resources to food processors, including permitting and licensing navigation, product development support, outsourced co-packing/contract manufacturing, labeling, business planning, sourcing, shipping and receiving support, and more. Resources are listed on how to become a licensed shared use kitchen. Here’s a link to some shared-use kitchen spaces in Massachusetts, also listed in Chapter 10.
Co-packers
A co-packer or contract manufacturer is another option for processing your food products. A co-packer is a company that specializes in producing a food product for others to sell. With a co-packer making your product, you can focus more on sales and marketing.
Consider hiring a co-packer if you have a limited budget for specialized production equipment. Co-packers often have bottling and filling machinery, portioning, packaging, labeling equipment, and other industrial kitchen equipment. They often have food science capabilities and can handle food safety plan development and testing for pH and Brix for example.
A co-packer may specialize in a specific type of production. For instance, some co-packers specialize in hot pack sauce productions, while others focus on baked goods. A co-packer delivers an efficient production method in a controlled environment.
This type of business may offer other support as well. Co-packers can convert recipes to commercial processes and help with product development. They may offer insights and advice for streamlining your process. If you’re concerned about sharing your recipe, be sure to have your co-packer sign an agreement not to disclose any proprietary information.
Include the copacker’s pricing into your business plan to support the profit margin you expect. Ask if the agreement includes things like ingredients, packaging, or storage. Ideally, terms of payment to the co-packer will work with terms of payment from your customers.
Most co-packers have minimum product runs. If you have a product with a long shelf-life, this may be fine. However, if you make a product that needs to be refrigerated or has a short shelf-life, working with a traditional co-packer requires consistent sales. Co-packers typically need standard ingredients and packaging to fit into their existing lines. Your requirement for using local tomatoes or packaging in some unique bottle may not be possible or may require a larger minimum run.
Co-packing licensing
Massachusetts General Law requires a wholesale license for food processors using a co-packer. So, even if you outsource the production to a co-packer, you will still need your own wholesale food distributor’s license. Download a license application form here, available from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Food Protection Program. The cost is $300.
Co-Packing labeling
Co-packed foods have additional labeling requirements. As a food processor, you must disclose where your product was made. You can use phrases like “Manufactured for…,” “Distributed by…,” or other wording that explains the facts.
Here’s a list of some state and regional co-packers, also listed in Chapter 10.
Additional Resources
Licensing
Retail permit: If you plan to sell value-added products directly to consumers through farmers markets or your own website, you need a retail permit from the city or town where your production kitchen is located. The cost varies as do the rules regarding the sales of products made in home-based (residential) kitchens.
Wholesale permit: If you plan to sell to a third party who then sells your product to consumers (or uses your product as an ingredient), a wholesale permit is required, issued by the state department of public health. Wholesale permits require a state inspection of the facility. The license from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health costs $300.
Facility Registration: Any facility that is manufacturing/processing, packing, or holding food must be registered with FDA to be able to efficiently identify the location and source of a potential bioterrorism incident or outbreak of foodborne illness. Then it’s possible to quickly notify facilities that may be affected. How to register including step-by-step instructions are here: Online Registration of Food Facilities | FDA. The one-time registration and every-other-year renewal are free. Learn more in the FDA's guidance that includes questions and answers. Generally, farms are not required to register, as defined in the guidance.