Retort Pilot Batch: What Happens to 300–500 Pouches

This page is part of DapoGo’s guide to halal OEM and co-packing, written by the DapoGo team, a retort food maker with our own factory at Melaka Halal Hub in Serkam, Melaka.

Founders ask what the pilot costs; that is answered below. What matters as much: what it proves, what gets recorded, and whether any of it travels if you change factory.

What does a pilot batch prove that an approved sample does not?

An approved sample settles the taste question; the pilot settles the process question at volume. The Codex Alimentarius code for low-acid canned foods is conditional and specific: if heat penetration tests were made using laboratory simulators, the results should be verified in the production retort under conditions of commercial operation, because there may be unexpected deviations in product heating and cooling characteristics.

The same code requires heat penetration to be determined under the most adverse conditions likely to be met in production — the worst case, not the best. NC State Extension puts the consequence in one sentence most co-packers would rather not print: “Scale-up of production from the home kitchen to the first plant trial may produce unsaleable or unusable product.” Plan the pilot as a test with a budget, not as launch inventory. What heat does to a recipe is in home recipe to retort pouch; the cycle itself is in what is retort processing.

It also locks your recipe. Codex defines a scheduled process as the one chosen for a given product and container size, and requires it to carry the filling specification “including any restrictions on ingredient changes”. The US FDA’s inspection guide for low acid canned food, quoting 21 CFR 113.3(f), calls these critical factors: fill weight, headspace, particle size, viscosity, initial temperature. A generously filled pouch is a deviation, not a bonus.

Why can’t the pilot run on your printed pouches?

Because the film has a bigger minimum than your batch. Malaysian packaging supplier Logo Sendiri puts the standard printed retort pouch MOQ at 10,000 pieces, with lower MOQs on plain or unprinted formats for pilot runs, and lead times of 3–5 weeks for a first order, 2–3 weeks for repeats.

So a 300–500 pouch pilot runs on plain pouches with a compliant label, while print is sequenced separately — which is also why artwork, barcode, nutrition facts and lab testing sit outside the pilot fee. If you sell into Singapore or the UK too, settle destination-market labelling before committing to printed film. DapoGo runs stand-up and pillow aluminium retort pouches plus glass jars for sambal.

What records come out of the run, and when is the lot released?

The Codex code asks that each batch be identified as a code lot: all product produced during a period of time identified by a specific container code mark. Closure records should specify the code lot, the date and time of each inspection, the measurements obtained and every corrective action taken, and the records of establishing the scheduled process should be permanently retained.

A heat seal is weaker at retort temperatures, and Codex expects such seals to have the required strength before retorting, because small imperfections can be aggravated by the strains of retorting and permit microbial contamination after heat processing. Inspections should be carried out daily by trained personnel.

No later than one working day after the process, a competent representative of plant management should review the records and confirm every pack received the scheduled process. The code asks for those records to be retained for not less than three years.

What should you do with 300–500 pouches?

Split the batch in three. Hold a share back as monitoring pouches, because a flawed process can show as swelling 7 to 14 days later, by which point the pouches are with customers. Keep a second share as evidence pouches for a formal incubation test. What is left is what you sell or show buyers — and your shelf-life study starts from the same run.

1. Monitoring pouches. RetortLab Malaysia advises keeping samples from every batch and checking them regularly.
2. Evidence pouches. Codex calls the formal test an incubation test: product held at a set temperature to see whether microorganisms grow.
3. Market pouches. The balance, for sale or for buyer samples.

KUDEN Academy is clear that a shelf-life study must use the formulation, process and packaging representing the real commercial product, with acceptance criteria set before results arrive. It also says something that cuts against us: shelf life must be owned by a product through its own data, not borrowed from another by assumption. DapoGo’s own products keep 24 months at ambient — our claim about our products, not yours. Note who received each pouch: Codex expects distribution records so a lot can be segregated.

What happens to the validated process if you change co-packer?

You can move, but the validation does not move with you. As FoodSure states, F0 validation determines the process time and temperature needed for commercial sterility for the particular formulation, fill weight, pouch dimensions and retort machine used. The machine is in that list, so a new retort means establishing and verifying the thermal process again.

A review in Food Science & Nutrition records a 7-log spore reduction taking 17 minutes with reciprocating agitation where static processing needed 53 minutes. That compares agitated with static processing in one study, not factory A with factory B — but it shows how much the handling of containers changes the cycle, which is why the validation names the machine. The route choice is in private label or your own recipe.

What does it cost, and what is excluded?

DapoGo publishes its rates: RM250 for a consultation, from RM1,500 for private label, from RM3,500 for a custom R&D sample, from RM5,000 for complex development. The pilot batch has no published price, because the real production price is confirmed only after R&D and costing; what is published for the pilot is its minimum quantity, 300–500 pouches per SKU.

We allow a maximum of three recipe revisions per SKU, because each meaningful change re-opens the validation above. Excluded unless stated: artwork, lab testing, nutrition facts, barcode and the halal application; the R&D fee is non-refundable and samples are not for sale. Costs sit in the OEM cost note, certification in the MeSTI, halal and HACCP note.

Quick answers

Is a pilot batch the same thing as a sample?
No. A sample answers whether the product tastes right. A pilot batch runs on the production retort to verify the process under commercial operating conditions, which Codex asks for when the earlier work was done on simulators.

Can I sell the pilot pouches?
You can, but we would not sell all of them. RetortLab reports pouches starting to swell 7 to 14 days after a flawed process, so hold a share back for monitoring and for your shelf-life study.

Can a pilot batch be smaller than 300 pouches?
Our published pilot MOQ is 300–500 pouches per SKU, with full production from 1,000 per SKU. A smaller quantity has to be confirmed separately for your product rather than promised on this page.

Where to start

Start with one SKU and one characteristic that cannot change. DapoGo publishes 54 products across 7 categories in its own shop, so your dish is not our first production run. Detail: halal OEM and co-packing services, the six-step OEM process, and the FAQ. WhatsApp 011-5501 3391.

Sources

• Codex Alimentarius, FAO/WHO: CAC/RCP 23-1979
• US FDA: Low Acid Canned Food inspection guide 3 (21 CFR 113.3(f))
• NC State Extension: Choosing and Using a Copacker
• Understanding retort processing, Food Science & Nutrition (2024)
• FoodSure: Retort Pouch Process Validation
• KUDEN Academy: Shelf Life Produk Retort
• Logo Sendiri: Retort Pouch Malaysia guide