Co-packer: the plant that makes and packs your food or drink

How co-packing works

Co-packing is contract manufacturing for food and drink. You bring the recipe or formula, the label and the brand; the co-packer brings the kitchen or line, the food safety program and the staff. Some buyers say co-manufacturer for a plant that makes the product and co-packer for one that only fills or packs, but most use the words interchangeably. Who buys the ingredients and packaging varies: some co-packers buy everything and quote a price per unit or case, while others charge a processing fee and expect you to supply some or all of the materials.

If you instead put your label on a recipe the plant already makes and sells to other brands, that is white label, and the recipe stays the plant's. Private label is the wider term for a product made for one brand, and whether the recipe is yours depends on the contract. With a true co-packing deal the recipe should stay yours, so say so in the contract.

What the rules require of the plant, for food sold in the US

• Registration. Unless an exemption applies, a facility must register with FDA if it is engaged in the manufacturing/processing, packing, or holding of food for consumption in the United States^[2]. That covers co-packers abroad as well as at home. Ask for the plant's registration number before the recipe is shared.
• Good manufacturing practice. FDA's cGMP rules set how a food plant must run, and a plant's own claim that it complies is not proof that it does.
• Shelf-stable drinks and canned foods. If your product is an acidified food or a low-acid canned food, which is worth checking for any shelf-stable drink, sauce or canned product, the processor must file with FDA the scheduled processes for each acidified food in each container size^[3], with an analogous filing for low-acid canned foods. Filing does not constitute approval of the information by the Food and Drug Administration^[4], so a co-packer's filing tells you the process is on record, not that FDA signed off on it. Ask whether your exact product and container size are covered before you order packaging.

Whose name goes on the label

The label can name your company rather than the plant. Where the company on the label did not make the food, the name must be qualified by a phrase that reveals the connection such person has with such food; such as "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by"^[5]. The address can be yours too: the label may state the principal place of business in lieu of the actual place where such food was manufactured or packed^[5], unless that would be misleading. That is why a shopper usually cannot tell which co-packer made a product.

Example: what a co-packing quote covers

A canned cold brew coffee, made in the same country as your warehouse, co-packer buys the materials

Line	Per case of 24 cans
Ingredients to your formula	$3.10
Cans and ends, printed with your design	$4.30
Carrier, tray and case packaging	$0.90
Filling, seaming, heat processing and fee	$2.40
Quality testing and hold, spread over the run	$0.30
Price per case at the plant, at a run of 2,000 cases	$11.00
Freight to your warehouse	$1.20
Delivered cost per case	$12.20
Delivered cost per can	$0.51

Illustrative figures, not a quote. Real prices depend on the spec, quantity and factory.

Ask for every co-packing quote in this shape, plus a line for storing your materials between runs, which some quotes leave out. The breakdown shows what falls as the run gets bigger (the fee and the testing share) and what you could buy yourself, such as the printed cans.

What to ask about a co-packer

• What is the minimum run, per flavor or per product, and how often does the plant run it? See MOQ.
• Who buys ingredients and packaging, and who pays for materials left over when a product changes?
• Is the recipe yours, in writing?
• What is the plant's FDA registration number, and are your product and container size covered by its process filings?
• Who approves the finished batch before it ships, and what is tested?