Shipping it

Supplement powders ship badly in a specific way: they are light for their volume, so you pay for air, and they arrive different from how they left.

Light, bulky and awkward

A 2 lb tub of protein is a large object containing mostly air by volume. Dimensional weight rather than actual weight usually sets the carriage cost, which makes the tub choice a shipping decision as well as a shelf one.

This is the strongest argument for pouches as a refill format: the same servings in a fraction of the shipped volume.

What a case has to survive

Compression from stacking, which crushes tubs and pops lids, and drops onto a corner. Tubs are more forgiving than glass but a cracked tub is a moisture ingress event rather than merely a cosmetic one.

Seal the case properly and avoid part-filled cases with void at the top, because that is where compression damage happens.

Segregation in transit

This is the one specific to blends and it is invisible. Hours of vibration is exactly the condition that causes particles differing in size and density to separate, so a tub that was uniform when filled can arrive stratified.

Nothing in the packing prevents it. What prevents it is the blend design: narrow particle size range across components, pre-dilution of small components, and minimal free-fall during filling.

It is also why a sample taken at filling does not fully answer the uniformity question, and why retained samples should be stored rather than only tested fresh.

Cases and direct to consumer

Six or twelve are the usual counts, and six lowers the barrier for a small stockist to try you.

For single units by post, the tub is robust enough that the risk is the lid rather than the container: tape or shrink the closure, because a lid that opens in transit ruins the parcel and the product.

References