Mylar pouch sizing guide for food and beverage brands

Founders almost always ask 'what size pouch should I get?' when the question they should be asking is 'what's my fill weight, and what's the bulk density of my product?' Two products with the same fill weight in oz can need very different pouch sizes because of density.

Coffee at 12 oz net weight needs a roughly 5×8×3 in stand-up pouch (about 250 ml usable volume) — whole bean coffee is roughly 0.45 g/ml bulk density, so 340g of coffee takes about 755 ml of pouch volume, and we fill to about 70%. Granola at the same 12 oz net weight needs a 6×10×3.5 in pouch because granola is closer to 0.20 g/ml bulk density — same weight, double the volume.

Step one: weigh out your fill weight on a kitchen scale, dump it into a measuring cup, read the volume in ml. That ml-volume divided by 0.75 is your target pouch interior volume. Now you can pick a pouch.

Same net weight, different volume. 12 oz of coffee fits in a 5×8 pouch. 12 oz of granola needs a 6×10 pouch. Bulk density decides, not the label weight.

There's no universal standard, but the food/beverage industry has converged on a handful of sizes that retailers expect and most converters (including our in-house Karlville line) tool up for. Here are the sizes we run as standard at Bazaar Printing:

These are interior dimensions (width × height × gusset). The exterior is slightly larger due to seal margins (usually 1/4 to 3/8 in on each side). When you spec your label artwork, work to the interior dimensions plus 1/8 in bleed on every side.

• 3×5×1.5 in — sample sachets, tea bags, single-serve coffee (5-15g fill)
• 4×6×2 in — single-serve snacks, 2 oz coffee, small spice (15-50g fill)
• 5×8×3 in — 12 oz coffee, 8 oz tea, 6 oz snack (200-400g fill)
• 6×9×3 in — 16 oz coffee, 1 lb pasta, 10 oz nuts (300-500g fill)
• 7×11×4 in — 2 lb coffee, 1 lb granola, jerky packs (500-900g fill)
• 8×12×4 in — 3 lb bulk coffee, 1.5 lb cereal, dog treats (700g-1.4kg fill)
• 10×14×5 in — 5 lb bulk grain, 3 lb dog food, party-size snack (1.4-2.5kg fill)

A 'mylar' pouch isn't pure mylar — it's a 3-7 layer laminate. The outer layer is usually a clear PET or matte BOPP that takes the print. The middle is a barrier layer, typically metalized PET or AlOx-coated PET for oxygen and moisture barrier. The inner layer is the sealant, usually LLDPE or CPP, which is what actually heat-seals together when the pouch is closed on a filler.

For most food/bev applications, the standard structure is PET / AlOx-PET / LLDPE — gives you about a 95% oxygen barrier, transparent matte exterior so brand color shows, and a clean food-contact inner layer. For oxygen-sensitive products (coffee, nut butter, anything that goes rancid), step up to MetPET or add a foil layer.

Compostable pouches exist (PLA / cellulose laminates) but the oxygen barrier is roughly 1/5 of MetPET, which kills the shelf life of high-fat products. For a tea blend with a 12-month target, compostable is fine. For a coffee with a 6-month target, compostable will stale the product faster than you want.

A pouch that doesn't stand up on a shelf is a returned SKU. Stand-up reliability comes from two specs: gusset depth (the K-bottom or W-bottom that folds open into a flat base) and the ratio of base width to pouch height.

Rule of thumb: gusset depth should be roughly 30-40% of pouch width. A 5 in wide pouch wants a 1.5-2 in gusset. Skimp on the gusset and the pouch leans forward on shelf, especially when underfilled. Overshoot and the pouch wobbles because the base is too wide relative to the height.

Pouch height-to-width ratio should stay between 1.5:1 and 2:1. Taller than 2:1 (a 4 in wide × 9 in tall pouch) and the center of gravity gets too high — one bump on a shelf restock and the pouch topples. Wider than 1.5:1 (a 6 in wide × 7 in tall) and the pouch reads stubby.

Resealable closures change cost and shelf life. A press-to-close ziplock lets the customer reseal between uses — table stakes for granola, snack mixes, dog treats, anything consumed over time. A tin-tie (the bendy metal wire on coffee bags) is the specialty-coffee standard and signals 'fresh-roasted' more than a ziplock does.

A tear notch (a small V-cut at the top of the side seal) is free if you order it during conversion, and lets the customer open the pouch without scissors. Always include a tear notch unless the product is single-use.

Heat-seal-only (no ziplock, no tin-tie) is the cheapest option and works for single-serve products, drink mixes, or anything the customer will dump out in one use. Don't ship granola in a heat-seal-only pouch — the customer reseals with a chip clip and posts about it on Instagram.

Stock pouches with applied labels are the fastest, cheapest path to launch. You buy a clear or kraft stock pouch in a standard size from a converter (or from Bazaar, since we stock the seven standard sizes above), then apply a printed BOPP label to the front. Done in days. Minimum is whatever the label minimum is — 250 in our case.

Custom-printed pouches (where the brand artwork is printed directly onto the pouch wall during conversion) require a 1,000-5,000 piece minimum depending on the converter, a 4-6 week lead time, and a one-time tooling charge for the print cylinder if you're going gravure. Bazaar runs digital direct-print on stand-up pouches via our Karlville line — minimum is closer to 1,000 with no tooling fee, but it's still a 3-4 week turn vs 1 week for label-on-stock.

The decision rule: label-on-stock until you're moving 5,000+ pouches per SKU per quarter. At that point, custom direct-print is cheaper per unit and looks more premium because there's no label edge.

Bazaar Printing converts and prints stand-up pouches in-house on a Karlville pouch line in downtown LA. We stock the seven standard sizes for label-on-stock orders (250-piece minimum), and we run custom direct-print pouches for 1,000+ piece runs. If you send us a sample of your product, we'll weigh it, measure its bulk density, and recommend a size before you order.

We also handle the boring stuff most converters won't: tear notches, gusset depth tuning, tin-tie installation, ziplock closures, and food-safety documentation for natural-channel onboarding.