Getting started

What it costs to start

Updated October 2026

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The two you cannot avoid Then the space Then the recurring costs Loss belongs in the plan from day one Which is why the first decision is volume, not product Second-hand equipment is a real option with a real caveat Co-packing exists here too References

The equipment list here is the longest in the library, because two of the items are not optional and neither is small.

The two you cannot avoid

Pasteurizing equipment capable of holding the required time and temperature reliably, with the instrumentation to show it did.
Refrigeration sized for production and for holding finished stock, with temperature monitoring.

Both are capital items, both have to work every time, and neither has a small-scale version that removes the requirement.

Then the space

A licensed dairy facility, which in most states is a more involved permission than a general food premises. This is the point at which many makers discover that the shared kitchen they planned to use is not available to them for this product.

Then the recurring costs

Milk, which is a commodity with a price you do not set. Packaging, which for this property is plastic and therefore lighter and cheaper to ship than the glass elsewhere in the library. Testing, which is a routine ongoing expense here rather than an occasional one. And loss, which is real and continuous because the product expires.

Loss belongs in the plan from day one

Unsold short-life stock is not inventory carried forward; it is money gone. A business plan that assumes everything made is sold is wrong by a margin that grows with your range, and the honest version includes a wastage percentage from the start.

Which is why the first decision is volume, not product

Work out what you can reliably sell every week before working out what to make. In the shelf-stable crafts that order can be reversed; here it cannot.

Second-hand equipment is a real option with a real caveat

Dairy plant comes up regularly and buying used can halve the entry cost. The caveat is that the instrumentation has to be trustworthy and verifiable, because the pasteurization record is only as good as the device that produced it. Budget for calibration and for replacing anything you cannot check.

Co-packing exists here too

Having somebody else pasteurize and fill to your specification removes the capital entirely and raises the minimum order, which for a short-life product means committing to volume you then have to sell in days. It suits a maker with distribution already in place and almost nobody starting out.

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.