How much does it cost to make freeze-dried candy?
A 3 oz retail bag costs $1.10 to $2.00 all-in to produce in 2026, for a US seller running a home freeze dryer. Most published figures are lower than that — because most published figures count the candy and stop.
The gap between $0.60 and $1.60 per bag sounds academic until you price from it. Price a bag at $8 believing it cost you $0.60, and you think you are making $7.40. If the real cost is $1.60, you are making $6.40 — and once channel fees take their cut, the difference across a season is the difference between a business and an expensive hobby.
Here is every line, with the arithmetic shown.
The five cost lines
These figures assume a medium home freeze dryer, a 6 lb load of gummy candy, and a 3 oz retail bag — which yields about 30 bags per batch.
| Cost line | Per batch | Per 3 oz bag |
|---|---|---|
| Raw candy (6 lbs @ $5/lb bulk) | $30.00 | $1.00 |
| Electricity (≈22 kWh @ $0.17) | $3.74 | $0.12 |
| Packaging (mylar bag + label) | $5.40 | $0.18 |
| Machine wear ($3,495 ÷ 1,500 batches) | $2.33 | $0.08 |
| Labor (1 hour @ $15) | $15.00 | $0.50 |
| True total | $56.47 | $1.88 |
| What most guides quote | $35.40 | $1.18 |
Run your own numbers through the batch cost calculator — it takes about two minutes and hands the result straight to the pricing tool.
1. Raw candy: $0.75–$1.30 per bag
This is your largest line and the one with the most room to move. Buying gummy bears in 5 lb bulk cases runs roughly $3–$7 per pound depending on brand and whether you are buying name-brand or generic. Buying the same candy in retail bags off a grocery shelf can easily double that.
The trap specific to candy: it barely loses weight in the dryer. Fruit is 80–90% water, so a producer paying $2/lb for strawberries ends up with dried fruit that cost $12–$20 per finished pound — but they also get a product that sells by the ounce at a large premium. Candy loses only 1–22% of its weight depending on type, so your finished cost per pound is close to your input cost per pound. There is no concentration effect to hide behind.
2. Electricity: $0.13–$0.27 per bag
A home freeze dryer draws roughly 900–1,500 watts while running and consumes 15–30 kWh per batch — Harvest Right's own figures land in that band. At the 2026 US residential average of about $0.17/kWh, that is $2.50–$5.00 per batch, or 8–17 cents per bag on a 30-bag run.
Candy cycles run at the short end — typically 24–36 hours rather than the 36–48 hours a fruit load needs — because there is so little water to sublimate. Pre-freezing your candy in a household freezer before loading cuts another 8–12 hours off the cycle and is the single cheapest efficiency win available.
Two things distort this line badly if you ignore them: electricity rates vary from about $0.11/kWh in the cheapest states to over $0.30/kWh in Hawaii and parts of the Northeast, and a half-empty dryer uses nearly the same power as a full one.
3. Packaging: $0.15–$0.20 per bag
A resealable mylar bag runs 8–15 cents at bulk quantities, and a printed label another 5–10 cents. Buying 500 or more at a time roughly halves the per-unit cost versus 50-packs.
Oxygen absorbers are optional for candy sold to be eaten within months — sugar does not go rancid the way fats do, and the real enemy is moisture, which a properly heat-sealed mylar bag already handles. If you make long shelf-life claims, budget about 100cc of absorber per quart of bag volume and add 3–5 cents per bag.
Do not size bags by weight. Freeze-dried candy roughly doubles or triples in volume, so 3 oz of finished product needs about the footprint of a 6×9″ quart bag, not the 4×6″ that 3 oz of raw candy would fit into. The mylar bag size calculator works this out by candy type.
4. Machine depreciation: $0.06–$0.10 per bag
A medium home unit costs around $3,195–$3,500 in 2026, plus $200–$400 in trays, sealers and accessories. Spread across a realistic service life of about 1,500 batches — roughly ten years at three batches a week — that is $2.33 per batch, or 8 cents per bag.
This is the smallest line on the sheet, and it is still the one most often left out entirely. Leaving it out means your pricing implicitly assumes the machine was free and will never need replacing.
5. Labor: $0.40–$0.60 per bag
Here is the uncomfortable one. Loading trays, unloading, bagging, sealing, labeling and boxing takes about an hour of hands-on time per batch — the 24–36 hours of machine time is unattended, but that hour is not. At $15/hour spread over 30 bags, that is 50 cents per bag, which on our example sheet is more than electricity, packaging and machine wear combined.
Sellers leave labor out because it feels like it is not a real cost when the work is their own. It becomes very real the first time you consider hiring help for a busy market season, or the first time you calculate your effective hourly rate and find it is $6.
How cost changes by candy type
Candy type moves two of the five lines: raw material price, and how much weight survives the dryer.
| Candy | Weight lost | Bulk price/lb | Cost per 3 oz bag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gummy bears / worms | 15–22% | $4–7 | $0.90–$1.60 |
| Skittles-type shells | 3–7% | $4–6 | $0.75–$1.15 |
| Taffy / caramels | 7–15% | $5–8 | $1.00–$1.55 |
| Marshmallows | 15–18% | $3–5 | $0.65–$1.10 |
| Hard candy | 1–3% | $3–6 | $0.55–$1.10 |
Counter-intuitively, the candies that lose the most weight cost slightly more per finished bag, because you bought weight that evaporated. Gummies lose about a fifth of their mass; hard candy loses almost none. The yield calculator converts a load weight into finished weight and bag count for each type.
Where cost actually comes down
- Fill every batch completely. Electricity and machine wear are fixed per cycle. A 3 lb load carries the same $6 of fixed cost as a 7 lb load, so it doubles those lines per bag. This is the single biggest lever.
- Buy candy by the case. Moving from retail bags to 5–10 lb bulk cases typically cuts raw material 30–50%.
- Buy mylar in 500+ quantities. Roughly halves packaging versus small packs.
- Pre-freeze before loading. Cuts 8–12 hours off the cycle, which is real kWh.
- Batch your finishing work. Bagging and labeling two batches back-to-back takes noticeably less than 2× one batch — the setup and cleanup are shared.
The formula
That is the entire model — no black box. The batch cost calculator runs it in your browser with realistic US defaults already filled in, and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Gear referenced on this page
- Harvest Right home freeze dryer — the machine most candy sellers run; the medium size fits ~5–7 lbs of candy per batch.
- Resealable mylar bags, bulk — buying 500+ at once roughly halves your per-bag packaging cost.
- Impulse heat sealer — an airtight seal matters more for shelf life than any absorber.
Some links above are affiliate links. They never change the price you pay, and they do not affect the numbers on this page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to make one bag of freeze-dried candy?
$1.10 to $2.00 for a 3 oz retail bag, US home production, 2026. Roughly $0.75–$1.30 candy, $0.15–$0.20 packaging, $0.13–$0.27 electricity, $0.06–$0.10 machine depreciation, and $0.40–$0.60 labor at $15/hour. Figures under $1.00 almost always exclude labor, machine wear, or both.
How much electricity does a freeze dryer use per batch?
Roughly 15–30 kWh, drawing about 900–1,500 watts across a 24–36 hour candy cycle. At the 2026 US average of about $0.17/kWh that is $2.50–$5.00 per batch. Candy cycles are shorter than fruit or meat cycles because there is much less water to sublimate.
Does candy cost more to freeze dry than fruit?
Per batch, candy is cheaper — shorter cycles, less power. Per finished ounce, candy is more expensive in raw material, because you pay near-retail for the candy and it barely loses weight. Fruit sheds 80–90% of its mass, so a cheap input concentrates into a premium product; candy gives you no such margin from concentration.
Should I count my own labor in the cost?
Yes, at least at a token rate. About an hour of hands-on work per batch, at $15/hour across 30 bags, is $0.50 per bag — frequently a third of your true cost. Price with zero labor and you can never hire help or scale without raising prices on existing customers.
What is the cheapest way to lower cost per bag?
Fill every batch completely. Electricity and machine wear are fixed per cycle, so a half-empty run nearly doubles those lines per bag. After that: bulk candy cases, mylar in 500+ quantities, and pre-freezing before loading.
Do I need to include packaging in cost of goods for taxes?
Generally yes — packaging that ships with the product is normally part of cost of goods sold, as is the raw candy. Machine depreciation is usually handled separately as a capital asset. Rules vary by country and situation, so treat this as background rather than tax advice and check with an accountant.
Next step
Once you know your true cost per bag, the next question is what to charge for it. Freeze-dried candy sells at $8–$14 per 3 oz bag, but the price that leaves you a real margin depends on where you sell — a farmers market table and an Etsy listing keep very different amounts of the same $10. See freeze-dried candy profit margins by channel, or go straight to the bag pricing calculator.
Still deciding whether to buy the machine at all? Is a freeze dryer worth it? works through the payback math.