How To Convert a RECIPE to a Manufacturer Approved FORMULA

Sometimes… well actually most of the time- I get calls from start ups asking me how they can scale up their recipe to industrial size. The first thing I always ask —is your formula in percentages because that’s what manufacturers need to see it in.

Crickets chirping in the distance— silence on the line…

Client usually says  “I measure my liquids with a measuring cup and I use teaspoons to weight out my salt and sugar- is that ok??”

I answer NO!! A recipe and a formula are not really the same thing (although they are often used interchangeably) – a recipe is what you make in your house, and record your amounts in cups, tablespoons and pinches. A formula is how a professional specialty food manufacturer will document your information and is based on pounds, kilograms, grams and other weight measurements. These weights are then converted to percentages so any amount or batch size can be made on those confirmed percentages.

This means that if you have 2 cups of water in your recipe you have to weigh it out—and 2 cups of honey will not weigh the same amount as that water, and a cup of corn syrup will also have a different weight. This is because all these ingredients have different densities. The density of water is 1 gram per 1 ml (volume) but the density of honey is about 1.4 gram per 1 ml (volume) and different types of honey even have different densities!

Here is a sample of a simple conversion of a homemade recipe to a professional industrial formulation

Final Formula in Percentages

 Its very simple math- you just need to keep in mind that in food science manufacturing world, there is no such things as a cup, spoonful, pinch or feather dusting— everything has to be in weight only!

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