Pasteurizing and bottling

[rkaye]

Im looking to introduce a juice line. I want to start small and approach a handful of stores, so I dont want to use a co-packaging company and have 1000+ cases made (I just cant afford that layout of money)

If I use concentrate of the various juice/vegetables that I buy from a supplier, can I combine them and bottle myself or would it need to be re-pasteurized.

I know i can get a bottler for home use. So if I can not worry about pasteurization, that would pretty much solve my problem.

[Joey]

1000 cases is a "very" small run. If you can find a copacker that will run that small of an amount you should go for it if your confident in your product. Most copackers won't touch anything less than 5000 cases. To do it by hand would be very labor intensive and yes, I do believe you would have to pasteurize that type of drink. Good luck with your business

[rkaye]

the smallest run I found was about 880 cases.

But, I dont know anything about the company. This was just via email exchange.

But even at that, figuring $24 a case thats over 20k !!!

If I were to do it by hand, I would just do 10 cases or so as a trial run. Only then would I have the confidence.