Kitchen size & equipment/layout for gummies & chocolates? (Poll + floor plan inside)

All advice is welcome!

I’m planning a small (<400 sq. ft.) phase 1 kitchen for gummies, and chocolates if there’s room. Phase 2 kitchen can be >1,000 sq. ft.

What do you recommend if I wanted to produce 100,000+ gummies monthly and a good amount of chocolates? Is 14’ x 30’ enough? Or can I go smaller? Tight quarters are fine for now.

Smaller phase 1 kitchen = larger phase 1 extraction lab.

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No takers? Maybe a poll will help? :crossed_fingers: :crossed_fingers:

Smallest kitchen for gummies & chocolates?
  • 400 sq ft
  • 350 sq ft
  • 300 sq ft
  • 250 sq ft
  • 200 sq ft
  • <200 sq ft

0 voters

Not enough info. At 100k a month, you are at 5k a day. Assuming 5 day weeks. Seems to work out to about 2 trays an hour consistently for 8hr days. I really think you outta start out smaller and work your way up. You’re also gonna need a crew of at least 3. And that’s if you’re running them ragged.

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Thanks for your insight @MedicineManHempCo!

I chose 100,000/mo because I don’t have a good frame of reference, and that seemed reasonable based on this thread What are some must-have items and equipment for setting up a candy making kitchen?

We are only supplying a couple of our provisioning centers in phase 1. So starting smaller seems logical now I have a better frame of reference from your post. :+1:

The following floor plan is what I have in mind. Comments/critiques would be helpful. :pray:

This drawying is 14’ x 23’ (322 sq. ft). Maybe I should increase the size, considering the poll results thus far suggest 400 sq. ft. would be better?

I am probably not accounting for some equipment; maybe we need a freezer? Perhaps we can get by with just one convection oven/range? And perhaps I need more baker’s racks? And so on.

Dry storage and a cold storage refrigerator are to be located in the hallway adjacent to the kitchen. However, if we have only one oven/range, I could place the cold storage refrigerator inside the kitchen.

Legend:

F.Mix = Floor mixer
S.Mix = Stand mixer
G-C.D. = Gummy/chocolate depositor
W.R. = Wire rack (storage)
B.R. = Baker’s rack

Thanks for the poll votes so far! It’s really helpful! :metal:

Version 2.0: Big thanks to those Future4200 members helping me offline!

Feel free to :gun: holes in the layout or plan.

Phase 1 will be gummies, lozenges/suckers, chocolates, cookies, peanut butter cups, & rice krispies squares. Beverages will be added in phase 2, once we can fit a canning line and scale up the nanoemulsification throughput.

I’m going with a few Duxtop Professional 1800W induction burners. Plus a gummy/chocolate depositor, demolder, high shear homogenizers, overhead stirrers, piston dispenser, table-top jacketed mixer, microwaves, etc.

I’m planning on a QSonica 2000 ultrasonic w/Flocell (chilled flow-through operation) in the adjacent lab for transparent O/W nanoemulsions and cyclodextrin for water soluble complexation. I prefer to use microfluidization (with a Microfluidizer) or ultra high-pressure homogenization (with a Bee International) rather than ultrasonic homogenization. However, at this point, for us, they are cost prohibitive for commercial scale throughput while ultrasonic is cost affordable.

(14’ x 23’; “Trh” = trash can)

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Can’t wait for build out pics

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:metal:

The Illuminated Extractors E-4K Turbo Max Pro will look great, too! I’m working on its C1D1 right now. I’m also working on the C1D2 for the automated cryo ethanol centrifuge with filter skid, FFE, and inline decarb. Burning the midnight oil (double entendre intnded :sunglasses:).

We will probably build our C1D1 and C1D2 ourselves because I have experience in their designs, as do our MEP engineers. And I’m sure you and others can assist if I have some questions. Although, going with prefab sounds nice - and I do love making my life easier :beach_umbrella:

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