Private Label Coffee: What the Label Puts On You

Search this term and every result is a roaster selling a programme. The only page that explains the words rather than selling against them belongs to a company that sells roasting machines. Two things are therefore missing everywhere.

The first is that one phrase covers four different deals. White label from a stock blend, private label against a profile you help define, contract roasting where you supply the green, and roast-to-order dropshipping carry different minimums, different lead times and different answers to who owns the recipe. Every page sells one of them and calls it private label.

The second is the part nobody sells. The moment your name is on the bag you are the responsible party, and the label law applies to you rather than to the roaster. So we read eleven programme pages and the regulations of both countries on 30 October 2026.

What are the four arrangements, and which one are you being sold?

Start with how little gets published. Of eleven programme pages we opened on 30 October 2026, four publish a minimum order quantity, four publish a lead time and three publish a price. Three publish none of them. That ratio tells you what to ask for in writing.

The vocabulary is just as loose. One US roaster uses the terms in the opposite direction to the rest of the trade, and says why: its programme is "a collaborative branding model, where your brand is featured alongside Blind Dog Coffee", and "at this time, we do not offer White Label (fully unbranded) products". ^[29] There, private label means two names on the bag and white label means one; elsewhere the words run the other way.

Two details matter more than the headline numbers. The white label step buys packaging, not coffee: ten times the commitment, 150 lb against 15 lb at the same roaster, changes nothing but the name on the front. ^[32] And green coffee risk moves to you the moment you specify a blend: one Canadian roaster will do private label "but would require a commitment for any beans sourced". ^[39]

Elsewhere the numbers are absent. A co-packer publishes an SQF Level 2 certification and no minimum, lead time or price. ^[38] A converter answers its own minimum question with "each of our plants varies in their minimum order quantity". ^[41] A Canadian dropshipper prices onboarding at "$2,000 one-time onboarding fee", with no currency stated on the page. ^[34] The only vendor page here that mentions a regulator promises design freedom "within FDA reqs. of course". ^[35] Weighing all this against owning the equipment is starting a coffee roastery.

What does the label law put on you?

Your name on the front is not branding, legally. It identifies the responsible party, and most of the mandatory content is owed by you.

In the United States

What must appear, and how big. The statement of identity sits on the principal display panel in bold, "in a size reasonably related to the most prominent printed matter on such panel": no absolute number, only a relation to the biggest thing there, usually your logo. ^[2] Nothing required may fall below one-sixteenth inch. ^[1]

Whose name, and the phrase first bags miss. The label needs the manufacturer, packer or distributor's name and address, for a corporation "only by the actual corporate name" rather than the brand. Where the food was not made by the person named, that name "shall be qualified by a phrase that reveals the connection such person has with such food": Manufactured for, or Distributed by. ^[3] The phrase is mandatory; naming your roaster is not.

Net quantity. A distinct item inside the bottom 30 percent of the panel, at a minimum height that climbs with panel area. Its worked example: three-fourths of a pound reads Net Wt. 12 oz. Metric is permitted, not required. ^[4]

The Nutrition Facts panel, and what voids it. The CFR names the product: foods holding insignificant amounts of every required nutrient are exempt, the examples "include coffee beans (whole or ground)", and no filing is needed. The condition is the expensive part, because the exemption holds only "Provided, That the food bears no nutrition claims or other nutrition information in any context on the label or in labeling or advertising". ^[5] One zero-calorie line in an advertisement buys you a panel.

The two small-business exemptions, which do not rescue a claim. A retailer selling direct is exempt at or under $500,000 of gross sales, or $50,000 of food sales to consumers, on a two-year average. A low-volume product is exempt where its claimant employed "fewer than an average of 100 full-time equivalent employees" and sold "fewer than 100,000 units", on a notice filed beforehand, waived for a non-importer under 10 employees and 10,000 units. Both carry the same silence condition as the coffee exemption, so on the text we read neither rescues a label that makes a nutrition claim. ^[5] And it is your business that gets tested, not the roaster's: on private label, FDA answers that "the company whose name appears on the label is responsible for providing nutrition information" and that the manufacturer need not provide it to the private labeler. ^[10]

Food facility registration. It attaches to a facility "engaged in the manufacturing/processing, packing, or holding of food", with labeling and packaging among the listed examples. ^{[6] [7]} FDA's nearest answer covers brokers: one who "does not manufacture, process, pack, or hold" food "is not required to register". ^[11] Our reading, not FDA's words: a brand owner who never takes possession resembles that broker; one storing pallets is holding food. FDA publishes nothing phrased for the brand owner.

Allergens and the ingredient list, on the statute. The allergen duty fires only where the food contains "a major food allergen", from a closed list of nine that excludes coffee; the ingredient-list trigger is a food "fabricated from two or more ingredients". ^{[8] [9]} Our reading: a plain coffee bag owes neither, though a flavoured SKU does, flavourings being expressly inside the allergen rule. Use the statute and not FDA's guide for the list: the guide still names eight, predating sesame. ^[10]

In Canada

There is no Canadian equivalent of Manufactured for. Canada requires "the identity and principal place of business of the person by or for whom the food was manufactured or produced", and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations repeat the formula. ^{[12] [16]} Because by or for is already in the rule, a brand owner's bare name and address satisfies it, with no qualifying phrase at all.

Both official languages, with one exception. Everything required on a food label "shall be shown in both official languages", except "the identity and principal place of business" of that person. ^[14] Common name and net quantity bilingual; your company block need not be.

Metric, boldface, and a different ladder. Net quantity "must be shown in metric units", grams below 1,000 g, with "the numerical quantity in boldface type", the numeral height set by Schedule 6 against display-surface area. ^[16] The older Consumer Packaging and Labelling Regulations carry the same ladder with inch equivalents written in. ^[18]

Both as published, and not interchangeable. ^{[4] [18]} The US rung changes at 25 sq in and Canada's at 40 sq in, and the third rung differs in height: a panel of 40 to 100 sq in needs 3/16 inch in the United States against 6.4 mm, written as 1/4 inch, in Canada. Artwork sized to the US rung is short in Canada.

The nutrition table, by a numeric test rather than a food list. Canada exempts a product where every line but the serving of stated size can be expressed as zero, and the exemption dies on any reference to energy value or a listed nutrient on the label or in the manufacturer's advertising. ^[15] It names no foods: CFIA's examples are spices, vinegar and bottled waters. ^[20] The asymmetry, flagged: the US regulation names coffee beans and Canada's does not, so a plain Canadian bag is exempt by applying that test, not by a quoted statement. The ingredient list is explicit, required "where a prepackaged product consists of more than one ingredient". ^{[13] [22]}

The licence follows the activity, not the name on the bag. The prescribed activities for food crossing a provincial border include "packaging and labelling". ^{[17] [16]} CFIA then answers the brand owner: no licence is needed "if your sole activity is to interprovincially trade food", but you are "responsible to make sure" the food was "labelled by a licence holder", and "you need a licence to label food for export or interprovincial trade. The activity of labelling includes relabelling as well as over-stickering an existing label." ^[19] So distribute only and you owe diligence, not a licence; over-sticker a border-crossing bag and you need one, as with the permits a coffee shop needs.

A compositional standard your common name has to meet. Incorporated by reference into the Food and Drug Regulations: "Roasted Coffee or Coffee is roasted green coffee, and contains not less than 10% fat, and may contain not more than 6% total ash", with decaffeinated coffee at not more than 0.1% caffeine and decaffeinated instant at 0.3%. ^[21] We read eight sections of 21 CFR part 101 and found no US counterpart. We did not search the whole of the US food regulations, so the finding is that Canada publishes one and we did not find its equivalent where we looked.

What does a bag actually cost you?

Every input below is a figure a named seller published on a stated date. The per-bag column is our arithmetic, not a price anyone quoted, and an input we could not retrieve says so. We do not convert. In US dollars, for a 12 oz bag:

Two notes, both ours. The green figure uses the regulation's own equivalence, that 12 oz is three-fourths of a pound ^[4], and it is a floor rather than a cost: roasting drives weight off, so the green behind a bag weighs more than the coffee in it, and we found no citable roast-loss figure. And the parcel is the largest line, which is why dropshipping exists. One co-packer lists its own 12 oz retail bags at $14.99 and $15.49. ^[38]

In Canadian dollars the picture is thinner, and we will not thicken it with converted US figures. The one Canadian page publishing a per-bag price puts private label at CA$13.00 per 340 g bag, in cases of 30 at CA$390.00, lead time 5 to 7 business days, read 30 October 2026. ^[33] We could not retrieve a Canada Post small-parcel rate, and no Canadian pouch or label seller publishes a quantity ladder, so those lines stay empty. The margin comes out of the gap to a shelf price, as in what it costs to open a coffee shop.

Which brands are private label?

No real answer on the search results page; a good one in public filings.

Coffee Holding Co states it most plainly, in its 10-K for the year ended 31 October 2025: "We produce private label coffee for customers who desire to sell coffee under their own name but do not want to engage in the manufacturing process." Net sales were $96,283,547, up 23 percent from $78,562,298. ^[27]

TreeHouse Foods calls itself "a leading private brands snacking and beverage manufacturer in North America", and on 30 June 2023 acquired a direct ship coffee business and a coffee facility in Northlake, Texas. Net sales for the year ended 31 December 2024 were $3,354.0 million against $3,431.6 million. ^[25]

Westrock Coffee supplies "branded and private label coffee" in several formats, calls itself a "brand-behind-the-brand" and says it seeks to be the world's largest private label service provider. Its Beverage Solutions segment reported net sales of $908.4 million for the year ended 31 December 2025 against $659.4 million. ^[26]

The best evidence is one transaction described from both sides. Farmer Bros reports that on 30 June 2023 it "completed its previously announced sale of certain assets related to its direct ship and private label business, including its production facility and corporate office building in Northlake, Texas". Two independent filings, one date, one plant. It still roasts under private labels for certain customers, on net sales of $342.3 million in fiscal 2025. ^[28]

One name we could not stand behind. Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group is often named in answers to this question. It files nothing in the United States, and every route to its own site returned an empty shell or the same homepage, with no private label statement and no figure, so we print nothing.

What should you ask for in writing?

1. The minimum per roast profile, not per order. One roaster publishes 100 units "per item", another 22 lbs, also given as 10 kg, per roast profile. ^{[29] [31]}
2. The lead time including approvals. The spread runs from 10 days or less, through 3 to 7 business days for a stock blend with your label on it, to 6 to 12 weeks "depending on approvals and production scheduling". ^{[30] [32] [33] [29]}
3. Who holds the licence that lets your bag cross a provincial border. In Canada it attaches to labelling and to being the last business to make the food, and CFIA puts the diligence on the trader. ^[19]
4. Whether the roaster will supply nutrition data. FDA's position: the company whose name is on the label is responsible for providing it, and the roaster need not hand it over. ^[10] Make a nutrition claim anywhere, advertising included, and the exemption that names coffee is gone. ^[5]
5. What the label will say about who made it, under which corporate name. A US bag needs the qualifying phrase and the actual corporate name. ^[3] A Canadian bag needs no phrase, because the rule already says by or for whom. ^[12]
6. The roast date, and who pays if a run ages. The freshness mnemonic quoted at you is a 2008 forum post rather than a standard.

The short version

Four different deals share one name, and the page selling you one has no reason to say which. Most roasters publish nothing you can plan against. What none mentions is that your name on the bag legally identifies the responsible party, which makes the mandatory label content yours. In the United States that means a qualifying phrase, your actual corporate name, a net quantity declaration sized to your panel, and a nutrition exemption that names coffee and dies the moment you make a nutrition claim anywhere. In Canada it means both official languages, metric, a stricter type-size rung, a compositional standard your common name has to meet, and a licence that follows the labelling. The arithmetic here is ours, from inputs published on a stated date. Ask for the minimum per profile, the lead time, the licence, the nutrition data and the label wording before you pay a setup fee.