Costing, Quality, Storage, Packaging and Entrepreneurship
Domain 8 applies arithmetic to the bakery: portion costing, food cost percentage, storage conditions, packaging and the registrations needed to start a small business. Numeric questions are common, so show the working.
Costing terms
- Batch cost = ingredients + packaging + labour + overhead.
- Portion cost = batch cost ÷ number of portions, after adding a wastage allowance.
- Food cost % = portion food cost ÷ selling price × 100. A typical target for a small bakery is 30–35 %.
- Standard recipe cards fix quantities so costs can be recalculated when prices change.
Storage
Dry store 15–25 °C below 60 % RH; chiller 1–4 °C; freezer −18 °C or colder. Follow FIFO and label with date. Fats, chocolate and spices absorb odours, so keep them away from onions and cleaning chemicals; flour stays off the floor on pallets.
Packaging, labelling and startup
Choose the barrier to the risk: moisture barrier for biscuits, greaseproof for pastry, odour barrier for chocolate. FSSAI labelling needs product name, ingredient list, net weight, veg/non-veg mark, lot or batch code, best-before date and the licence number. A small business needs an FSSAI licence, Udyam registration, GST once above the turnover threshold, and a local trade licence. Break-even units = fixed cost ÷ (selling price − variable cost per unit).
Worked example
A batch of 24 cookies: ingredients ₹180, packaging ₹60, labour ₹40, overhead ₹20 = ₹300. Add 5 % wastage (₹15) → ₹315 ÷ 24 = ₹13.13 per piece. To hold food cost near 40 %, price = 13.13 ÷ 0.40 = ₹32.8, so sell at ₹35. Check: 13.13 ÷ 35 × 100 = 37.5 %, within target.
Traps that cost marks
- Pricing from ingredient cost alone and ignoring labour, packaging and wastage.
- Dividing the selling price by the food cost percentage instead of the cost by the percentage.
- Forgetting trim and yield loss when converting as-purchased to edible portion.
- Storing flour on the floor or chocolate beside spices.