Interested in Co-Packing? Here Are the Steps.
Ready to embark on a co-packing or proprietary project? Exciting! Whether you are working with us at Ready Foods or another co-packer, we’re excited for you and we can be a resource on this journey.
Co-Packing Steps
Every co-packing project is a bit different, some may require unique ingredients that take a long time to source. Others may have easy-to-acquire ingredients, but have very specific specifications that require more tweaking in R&D. Here is a general guide to co-packing steps. While there are often many additional steps along the way, here are the major milestones.
Phase 1: Gather Information
Plan on this stage taking a couple of weeks. | Our team will meet with you to sign NDA’s, taste any control samples, go over recipe amounts or ingredient statements. Be sure to have your acceptable or banned ingredient lists together for this stage. We will think ahead to production, ensuring we have the capabilities and equipment to execute the project and nail down volume estimates.
Phase 2: Pricing & Sample Creation
In today’s current uncertain supply chain market, plan on pricing and sourcing to take the bulk of this time. We have seen some projects take a few weeks at this step and others take a few months to source unique ingredients. | In this phase, Supply Chain teams will shop the market, looking for the best price for your ingredients. Once sourced, an initial estimate price will be presented. If this meets your target, our R&D team will move forward with making samples for you to taste and for our production team to test with our equipment processes. If existing ingredients in our system can be used in your recipe, this process can be expedited.
Phase 3: Revisions
This phase moves as quick as your feedback can be provided to the R&D team and they can churn out the next version. We like to say to plan on one to three months, depending on the intricacies of the project. | For this step, you will perfect your recipe with the R&D team. We have found that the sooner a customer can gather insightful feedback on a sample version and return it to R&D, the sooner the next sample can be made, keeping the flow going. Don’t be afraid to ask for a virtual tasting or meeting to discuss feedback and next steps. Once R&D nails a recipe version, we check pricing again, based any recipe changes, and ensure we have hit your target.
Phase 4: Scale-Up
This step moves as quickly as raw materials can arrive, dependent on current market supply restraints. | Once you are happy with R&D samples, pricing has been approved and a floor stock agreement has been put in place, your first scale-up test batch will be put on the production calendar. Our production schedule is typically written three weeks in advance. This gives us time to bring in the proper ingredients for your large-volume test batch. As the customer, be sure to attend the scale-up batch so that you can give the test run your official thumbs-up.
Want to setup a co-packing exploratory call or bounce some ideas off of us? We’re rooting for you!