Getting started

Turning a batch into a product

Updated October 2026

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Three temperature records, not one Fix the culture, not just the recipe The date is a real claim here Then the container, then the label What stops being optional Build the wastage measurement in at the start Decide whether the container is incubated References

The jump from kitchen to product here is mostly about records of temperature, at three separate points, and about a date that is a real claim.

Three temperature records, not one

The pasteurization itself, the holding temperature of finished stock, and the temperature at which it left your control. Each is a separate record and each gets asked about, and the third one is the one small makers routinely do not have.

Fix the culture, not just the recipe

For a cultured product the culture is the formulation. A heirloom culture propagated from batch to batch drifts; a commercial one bought to a specification does not. Whichever you use, it has to be written down in a way that somebody else could reproduce, including how it is stored and how often it is renewed.

The date is a real claim here

Unlike a shelf-stable product, a dairy date is tested by reality within weeks and the consequence of getting it wrong is immediate. Establish it by holding product at a realistic temperature, not at your coldest shelf, and tasting it at and past the date you intend to print.

Then the container, then the label

Net quantity comes from the container and the fill. The date and the storage instruction have to fit the panel. Both settle late and labels ordered early are labels reprinted.

What stops being optional

Pasteurization records with time and temperature for every batch.
A batch code on every unit, tied to the milk received that day.
Cold holding records for finished stock.
A pH reading for a cultured product, with the time after filling.

Build the wastage measurement in at the start

Record what was made and what was actually sold, every week, from the first week. It is the number that tells you whether the business works, and it is invisible unless it is written next to production rather than noticed at the end of a bad month.

Decide whether the container is incubated

A set yogurt is usually filled before it sets and incubated in its own pot, which means the container has to tolerate the incubation and the whole filling operation happens earlier in the day. A stirred style does not. That single decision changes the equipment, the schedule and the container, so it belongs near the start rather than after a format has been chosen.

References

21 CFR 1240.61, Mandatory pasteurization for all milk and milk products in final package form intended for direct human consumption, which prohibits delivering such a product into interstate commerce unless it has been pasteurized or is made from pasteurized dairy ingredients. law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 131.200, Yogurt: not less than 3.25 percent milkfat and not less than 8.25 percent milk solids not fat, with “a pH of 4.6 or lower measured on the finished product within 24 hours after filling.” law.cornell.edu

Written from federal regulation and FDA guidance, not from a laboratory. Pasteurization of milk and milk products in final package form for interstate commerce is a federal requirement, and what your state permits inside its own borders is a separate question. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture, not a determination that you comply.