Frozen meals: costing freezing, storage and packs

A frozen meal costs the recipe, plus packaging that survives the freezer, plus the freezer's electricity and wear, plus the meals you lose. Freezer-safe packaging and the freezer itself do not exist when you sell fresh, which is why many cooks price frozen meals the same as the dish of the day. Add each part per meal, divide by the meals you actually sell, and you have the real cost.

This guide is about cost. How long a dish can stay frozen, how to chill it and how customers should reheat it are for you to set from the food safety rules where you sell and from your own tests. If you sell packaged food, check registration and labelling requirements with your local food authority.

The six costs of a frozen meal

1. The recipe. The batch's ingredients divided by the portions it really gives you. Weigh the cooked batch and portion it the way you sell it: if the pot gives you 30 meals, divide by 30, not by the 34 you hoped for. The guide on recipe yield shows how to measure it.
2. Your labour and cooking energy. Hours spent cooking, portioning and labelling, at what your hour is worth, plus the gas or electricity for the batch.
3. Freezer-safe packaging. A tray that handles the freezer and the microwave, its lid, a label with the name and date. It usually costs more than a takeaway box.
4. Freezer electricity. Spread across the meals that pass through it each month.
5. Freezer wear. What it cost, spread over the months it will last. It is the same sum as in the guide on kitchen equipment depreciation.
6. Losses. Meals that do not sell within your limit, cracked trays, smudged labels, the one you open to check a batch.

Working out the freezer's electricity

You need three numbers:

• What it uses: the most accurate way is a plug-in energy meter for a week. Divide the kWh by the days to get daily use. Without a meter, use the figure on the appliance label.
• What you pay per kWh: it is on your electricity bill.
• How many meals pass through each month: not how many fit, but how many go in and come out.

electricity per meal = daily kWh × 30 × price per kWh ÷ meals per month

A half-empty freezer uses nearly as much as a full one, so the more meals pass through it, the less electricity each one carries.

Waste freezes too

Freezing does not remove waste; it moves it. Instead of binning today's unsold chili, you bin meals that passed your limit or got damaged in the freezer.

Keep a simple log: how many meals you freeze and how many you end up throwing out or giving away. If you lose 6 in every 100, divide your cost by 0.94. That way the meals you do sell carry the ones you lost. The guide on shelf life and the cost of unsold stock explains why it works this way.

Worked example: frozen beef chili with rice

You make beef chili with rice to sell frozen through your meal prep page. With your recipe, one batch gives 30 meals. About 240 meals pass through your freezer each month.

You measured 1.2 kWh a day with a plug-in meter; $0.25 per kWh is an example, so use the price on your bill. The freezer cost $600 and you expect six years from it, which is 72 months.

• Losses: you lose 6 meals in every 100. Cost per meal sold: 4.50 ÷ 0.94 = $4.79
• Selling at $9.50 a meal leaves you 9.50 − 4.79 = $4.71

Notice that the freezer itself (electricity plus wear) is only $0.07 a meal. The tray, at $0.63, weighs nine times as much. If you are looking for savings, start with the packaging.

Is freezing dearer than selling fresh?

Run the same sum for fresh. No freezer tray (you use a simple tub at $0.30) and no freezer:

• 2.20 + 1.50 + 0.10 + 0.30 = $4.10
• But fresh has to sell within days, and your log says you lose 15 in every 100: 4.10 ÷ 0.85 = $4.82

Almost a tie: $4.79 frozen against $4.82 fresh. Frozen pulls ahead when you cook bigger batches. If you make 60 meals instead of 30 in 4.5 hours, with $5.00 of cooking energy:

• Your labour: 4.5 × 15 = 67.50 ÷ 60 = $1.13
• Cooking energy: 5.00 ÷ 60 = $0.08
• Subtotal: 2.20 + 1.13 + 0.08 + 0.63 + 0.04 + 0.03 = $4.11
• With the same 6% loss: 4.11 ÷ 0.94 = $4.37

Now frozen costs $0.45 less per meal than fresh. To scale the batch recipe without mistakes, use the recipe scaler.

Watch the big batch, though. More meals in the freezer means more cash tied up and more chance some pass your limit. If losses climb to 15 in 100, the cost becomes 4.11 ÷ 0.85 = $4.84 and the advantage is gone.

The cash sitting in the freezer

Every frozen meal is money you have spent and not yet collected. If you hold 150 meals on average, that is 150 × 4.50 = $675 tied up. That money is not available for groceries or rent. The guide on how inventory ties up cash shows how to work out how much stock you can afford to hold.

If you sell weekly plans with fixed delivery days, you can cook close to what is ordered and hold less stock. The guide on pricing weekly meal prep plans shows how to price them.

And if you deliver frozen meals, add the insulated bags and ice packs: you buy a few, reuse them, and spread their cost across the orders they carry each month.

Do it with the calculator

Load your recipe into the food cost calculator with the real batch size, add the tray and label as packaging, and add freezer electricity and wear per meal; you get the loaded cost of each frozen meal.