The food and beverage industry underwent some radical changes in 2020. In fact, most industries across the board look drastically different than they did at the end of 2019. With so many events that impacted us on social and economic levels, a global pandemic among them, a major shift in some areas is expected. Your food business consultant can help you through this time of transition, but this information will get you started.

As companies tried to respond to a quickly changing consumer demand, new trends began to emerge, pandemic food and beverage trends, if you will. They clearly reflected the current state of our society and what is on consumers’ minds. Now as we enter 2021, the emerging trends of fourth-quarter 2020 are now very apparent. Is the crisis over? No, not yet. But it’s better.

These trends in the food and beverage industry are worth noting. They could shape your production, distribution, and most of all, sales.

It Starts With a Story

Consumers want to hear the story behind the company and the product, says the report “Top Ten Trends 2020” conducted by Innova Market Insights. In fact, 56% of consumers around the world say that their purchasing decision is strongly influenced by the story around a brand. These stories tell of the brand’s stance on the community, sustainability, and the environment. The consumer can learn the origin of the ingredients and if that company is one they want to support based on their ethical or moral standards.

Health and Wellness

One trend that is really no surprise is the growing interest in health and wellness products. There’s nothing like a pandemic to spur people into taking a more focused interest in their health. As people are eating healthier and looking for food and beverage products that enhance health, it seems that the line between supplements and food is becoming increasingly blurred. More food products are making bolder health and wellness claims and consumers are snapping them up.

Plant-Based Foods

Plant-based meat and dairy alternatives are no strangers to grocery store aisles but foods that fall outside of that parameter are enjoying a surge in popularity. In 2020, more than 67% of new products that claimed to be plant-based were not directly within the meat or dairy categories. This is a rapidly growing sector that is well worth tracking. One area that stands out in regard to growth is plant-based confectionery products.

Back to Basics

As people were required to shelter in place or quarantine in their homes, cooking at home suddenly came back into vogue. The basics, the pantry staples, had an incredible surge in early 2020 when the pandemic first took hold. The popularity has remained mostly consistent as home chefs get creative and those new to cooking improve on their talent and skill. Dried beans, rice, pasta, sauces, broth or bouillon, and spices are gaining popularity, but specialty staples like applewood-smoked salt, vegan corn dogs, and hearts of palm pasta are also pretty hot right now.

Tighter Budgets

There are a lot of food and beverage trends out there, but one that resonates with all of us is a tighter budget. Consumers have spent months in lockdown, many have lost jobs or had their work hours reduced – most are struggling to make ends meet. In this time of economic uncertainty, people are going to be looking for ways to get the most for their money. They will be cutting corners wherever they can and looking for products that do double duty, such as immune boosting and offer multi-serve or variety packages. Shelf stable products are also rising quickly to the top.

A Food Business Consultant can Help You Make Adjustments to Meet Consumer Demand

The food and beverage industry is growing and changing like never before. Let us help you make the necessary adjustments so that you can meet consumer demand and increase revenue. As a food business consultant, we can look at current trends as well as consumer behavior and help you create a strategy that will keep in at the top of your game. Contact The Greater Good today to find out how we can help your brand keep up and even surge ahead in the quickly evolving food and beverage market.

Did you know that the success rate for new product launches in the food and beverage business is around 10%? This isn’t because the other 90% was just plain inedible or didn’t taste great. It’s because the food company behind them wasn’t able to adequately differentiate them from all the super similar products out there. This is why finding your niche in the food product industry and making it undoubtedly clear why your product is different is key to your success. We’re going to take a look at the niche food product industry, along with some tips on how to effectively promote your product.

Does Niche Marketing Work For Every Brand?

Developing a niche in the food product industry can be a highly effective strategy for targeting a specific consumer demographic, and can drive the success of your product to new levels. With the food market already containing unlimited choices, releasing a product that is different from the competition in any way, shape or form can create immediate success. This is especially useful for companies who have smaller budgets, and do not have the financial backing to heavily market their product in a way that they would need to if there was little differentiation between their product and others. However, niche products and niche marketing can’t necessarily work for every company.

Beth Day of Food Business News explains why niche marketing may not work with every brand and with every food product:

“Niche marketing is not for every brand. While large companies often use such strategies, it is difficult for them to reposition well-known core products. Consumers have difficulty seeing them as something else.”

Identifying Your Niche

In order to start your journey into the niche food product world, you first need to clearly identify what your niche is. A niche product doesn’t mean that you’re putting essentially the same product in packaging with a different label. What benefits does your food product have that others generally do not? What will a consumer gain by bringing your product home to their family over another?

Domenick Celantano of The Balance Small Business expands on what it truly means to identify your niche in the food product industry:

“Consider what makes your food and beverage product different from all of the others like it on the market. That is your niche. To be clear, it takes more than a great tasting product to pitch the supermarket buyer and then to get the customer to try your product, much less buy it again. Your product must be positioned as truly different from the competition. You have to separate your emotional investment in the product to really answer that question.”

Telling Your Story 

When launching a niche product, it’s important to connect a story to your product mission. This truly applies to any product you sell, in any industry. Even if you’re selling a niche product, it’s likely that someone still has something similar out there. So how can you evoke that emotional connection so that a customer is drawn into your product without ever trying it?

5W Public Relations tells us how to communicate your story in How to Stand Out in a Niche Food Market:

“Everyone loves a good story. If you want to separate yourself from your competition, then learn how to tell your story. As a matter of fact, once you become great at telling your story, then you immediately eliminate all of your competition! You may be in competition with others if you are selling the same product, but there is no way that your competition can take your story from you and use it. Telling your story properly will create loyalty in your audience. People will begin to look for you specifically rather than putting you in line with the rest of your field.”

Here at The Greater Goods, we offer consultation services for your business, from food production to distribution. If you’re looking for advice on how to get up and running, we offer a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers. 

It’s no secret that when running your own food business, your choice of suppliers can ultimately make or break your business. After all, at the end of the day, without great food and a service to ensure that it’s delivered to you when you need it, you have no business. There are several factors that play into choosing the perfect food supplier for your business, that go well past the best price. We’re going to take a look at 3 important steps to finding your perfect food supplier that you’ll want to consider before committing.

Have a Clear Idea of What You Are Looking For

Before ever approaching food suppliers, you need to have a clear idea of what you’re looking for. While your wants and needs may change down the road, you need to take stock of your current business needs and expectations before narrowing down which suppliers can give them to you.

Checkit.net gives us their thoughts on what decisions you need to make before you find your perfect food supplier:

“Finding a supplier that fits your business starts with having a well-defined idea of what you’re looking for. So before you begin hurling questions at potential suppliers, you need to ask yourself some. Would you like ingredients to be sourced locally? Do you need your supplier to deliver to your premises at certain times? Knowing what you want before you begin searching will save you a lot of time, so it’s worth some thought.”

Look at Certificates

We cannot stress enough the importance of finding a food supplier who is playing by the rules when it comes to food safety certification. As a business, your first concern always needs to be your customers’ safety. With a product as critical as food, you must ensure that what you’re serving to your customers is safe. Not only is this important for good business and establishing positive relationships with your customers, but it’s also important for ensuring that you don’t have a potential future lawsuit on your hands on account of food poisoning. 

Small-bizsense.com explains why working with a food supplier who is certified to understand food hygiene rules is an absolute must:

“All businesses working with food should have accreditation confirming they understand food hygiene rules. It’s important that you see these to ensure your supplier is encouraging cross-contamination. But, you also need to check in case they have any certificates or awards for their produce. Not having an award doesn’t mean they don’t provide high-quality food, but, having one does help you to know what you’re getting.”

Ensure They Have Market Knowledge

Making sure your food supplier has an array of market knowledge can be incredibly important when it comes to growing your own business. Suppliers who truly understand the culinary industry can provide valuable insight into your own business and can give you advice on the value that certain products or ingredients can bring to your business.

Will Harmon on BlueCart tells us why your food supplier should have a wide array of market knowledge on Winnowsolutions.com:

“The right supplier will be able to supply you with much more than products and materials.  Suppliers can be vital sources of industry information. This allows them to help you evaluate the potential of adding new items/ingredients to your order list, target new opportunities, and gain competitor insights.  Ultimately, this turns a business relationship into a partnership which creates value for both parties involved.”

Here at The Greater Goods, we offer consultation services for your business, from food production to distribution. If you’re looking for advice on how to get up and running, we offer a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers. 

The importance of food safety certification in a workplace that handles food is absolutely critical. Food safety certification does not only provide proof that the product itself is safe to use, but also warrants that the business holding this credential has met both the professional and ethical standards to run a business selling food to the public. Your customers should be particular about what they put in their bodies, and they are entitled to request to know that anyone who’s serving their food and the establishment itself  has passed food safety certification. We’re going to take a look at the importance of food safety certification and who is required to have it.

What Does Food Safety Certification Mean?

The Food Code in both the United States and Canada (where it is known as the Food Retail and Food Services code) requires that there always be at least one employee on site who is certified in food safety. But what does this actually mean and what’s involved in obtaining a food safety certificate?

Kara Lynch of Michigan State University explains more on what obtaining a food safety certification means and why it’s necessary for at least one employee on site at any given tie to obtain it:

“Currently, the Food Code states that a person in charge of a foodservice operation become a certified food protection manager. This has been a standard for many years, but what recently changed was that there always needs to be one person certified in safe food handling onsite during hours of operation. This food safety training covers the details of the food code, such as the source of pathogens, the flow of food from purchasing to serving, cleaning and sanitizing and more.”

Why Do Businesses Want Or Need Food Safety Certification?

There are a number of reasons why businesses want or need food safety certification. First and foremost, an establishment that sells food is breaking the law  in the case that they do not have food safety certification. But secondly, it’s truly just bad business to not obtain proper food handling certification when operating a business that the public is trusting to handle their food.

The Global Food Safety Resource tells us the importance behind obtaining food safety certification:

“Food safety certification conveys to consumers and the marketplace, as well as to employees and key stakeholders, that a food sector business has successfully met the requirements of a national or internationally recognized best practice approach. Certification by an objective third party can be invaluable to any business as it signifies good governance and corporate responsibility. With heightened awareness stemming from recent high profile food recalls, consumers are demanding an increase in food safety standards throughout the global supply chain. Those businesses which become certified to a particular food safety scheme will gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

Who is Required to Obtain A Food Safety Certificate?

So, is it required for all food handlers to be trained in food safety? Depending on where you live, an establishment may or may not be required to have all of its food handling employees certified in food safety. Your province or territory may require just one of its food handlers to be certified, while others may require all food handling employees to obtain this requirement.

Foodsafety.ca tells us more on who is required to possess a Food Safety Certificate:

“By law, all Food Handlers must be adequately trained in food safety. Depending on your province or territory, Food Handler certification may be a legal requirement. Food Handler certification requirements are set and enforced at a provincial and municipal level. As a food business owner, training manager or general manager, you need to have a clear understanding of specific food safety laws in your province or territory to ensure that the business is adhering to federal, provincial and municipal laws.”

At The Greater Goods, we offer consultation services for your business, from food production to distribution. If you’re looking for advice on how to get up and running, we offer a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers. 

Nuts and nut butters are healthy fats that have improved and expanded the food industry. They are versatile, tasty, and can be used in a variety of ways. Did you know that peanuts aren’t nuts at all? They are actually legumes, which is a type of pea. This makes it different from other nuts, like almonds, hazelnuts, and cashews.

Peanut butter used to be the only nut butter available on the market, making it impossible for those who were allergic to peanuts to enjoy one of the most adaptable flavors ever made.

Peanut butter and jelly, chocolate and peanut butter, ants on a log, buckeyes; these are just a few of the many recipes you can make using peanut butter, but only those who weren’t allergic got to enjoy these combinations.

That is until nut butter came on the scene.

What is Nut Butter?

Nut butter is a spreadable food paste made from grinding nuts into a butter-like consistency. Nut butter is mixed with sugar to sweeten it and a flavorless oil like coconut oil to make it smooth.

The most popular nut butters include almond butter, cashew butter, hazelnut spread, and sun butter. Nut butters used to be available only in specialty health food stores, but they are becoming increasingly popular that they are now available in most grocers nationwide.

Most nut butters are available in creamy or crunchy versions just like peanut butter, and the taste is extremely similar as well.

Many schools have now replaced peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in their cafeterias with sun butter or some other nut butter alternative so that those with peanut allergies can enjoy them too.

Natalie Butler explains how dangerous peanut allergies can be in her article on Healthline by saying, “Peanut allergies can be dangerous. The ACAAI reports that this is one of the food allergens most commonly associated with sudden and severe reactions, such as life-threatening anaphylaxis.”

What to Look for in Nut Butters

Not all nut butters are the same, so it is important to know what to look for and what to avoid.

Nut butters with ingredients like partially hydrogenated oil mean you will be consuming trans fat; a type of fat that can contribute to heart and cholesterol issues.

Alisa Hrustic with prevention.com discusses the effects of trans fat on the body by saying, “Trans fats spike your LDL (or the “dangerous”) cholesterol, which clogs your arteries. At the same time, they cause your HDL (a somewhat protective) cholesterol takes a dip, meaning excess cholesterol can’t be transported back to your liver to be flushed from your body.”

Nut butters can also have additional salt added to them which can increase your blood pressure and cause you to retain water.

When it comes to finding the right nut butters, check the label to see the amount of sugar and salt that is in the nut butter. In the ingredients list, check for partially hydrogenated oil to be listed. If so, you know there is an additional trans fat included in the nut butter. This can play a role in your overall heart health.

Why is Nut Butter so Successful in the Food Industry?

Nut butter is made from nuts, not legumes. Nuts are a single seed that is produced on a plant with its own individual shell that opens when the nut is ready to be eaten. Legumes are part of the pea family because there are multiple seeds in one pod.

Nuts are healthy fats while legumes are healthy proteins. The food industry has capitalized on creating and providing a product to people who have peanut allergies or those who are trying to limit the amount of pea and legumes they consume. They have successfully achieved this by creating nut butters made from all different types of nuts.

At eleatnutrition, they explain the nutritional difference between peanut butter and other nut butters by saying, “Nut butters (peanut, almond, cashew, etc.) are a good source of healthy fats and protein. As for the whole “almond butter is better than peanut butter” debate, variety is better. Each nut has their own unique nutrient content, so by occasionally switching between all the different kinds, you will be getting a wider variety of nutrients. Almond butter is slightly higher in monounsaturated fats and minerals, and peanut butter is slightly higher in protein. Cashew butter is a good source of magnesium, and walnut butter has more omega-3 than them all.”

To maximize using nuts and nut butters in all of your food industry needs, let us help you! Book a free consultation today and we will gladly outline how to make this area of your business successful.

It’s so important to align your food packaging and design with your branding. Using packaging to convey a message that is consistent with other branding will help you attract your intended customers, while also creating a sense of brand loyalty. Syncing your branding and packaging also makes it easy for customers to quickly identify your products. In your efforts, it’s helpful to work with a food broker to find the best food packaging at the best price. Don’t be limited by your own budget when searching for the right packaging: your food broker can help you meet your packaging goals at a cost you can afford.

Food Packaging Is a Marketing Tool

Think of your food packaging like you would think of any business sign, business card or advertisement: it’s a marketing tool that can be used to build your customer base and tip-off customers to the kind of products your business produces. Well-made and nicely designed food packaging reveals to customers what kind of experience they can anticipate having when they purchase and consume your products, whatever those products are.

Know Your Brand Before Designing Your Packaging

It’s very important to design your product packaging around your brand, and that’s why it’s important to design your brand before creating the packaging. You may decide to work with a professional marketing agency or brand designer on this project. Branding is the colour, look and feel of your product or services – but it’s more than that, too. Your company’s brand is like its face to the world. Brand conveys abstract ideas like character, quality and company values. All of these ideas should be reinforced with your company packaging.

Steps to Keep Packaging In-Line With Branding

So how can you sync your packaging and branding?

• Include your logo. Put your logo on all of your packages in a prominent position where it can be easily recognized.
• Remain consistent across other marketing efforts. Hold up your product packages to compare them. Shapes, colours, images – all should be consistent, or at least, should be related. If you’re working with a packaging artist, they should be able to maintain this consistency from one package to another. Your food broker can help you find a package designer that can help with this.
• Use consistent typeface or fonts. Letter shapes can convey as much meaning as actual words! Use a consistent family of fonts from one package to another.
• Make updates to your food packaging as you make updates to your branding. A mature company may go through rebranding from time to time. If this happens to your company, bring your food packaging up to speed.

Contact a Food Broker

It’s important to partner with a food packaging provider that can help you bring your packaging goals to fruition. A good first step in finding the right packaging is to align with a food broker that can help. To get started today, contact The Greater Goods for a free consultation.

Dried fruits are real fruits that have been dehydrated by removing nearly all of the moisture that is found in the fruit. Dried fruits are healthy and contain a variety of vitamins and minerals. Some dried fruits may have additives to keep the fruit from spoiling, turning brown, or losing flavor. It’s important to understand what additives may be added to the dried fruit so that you know if its the right fruit you should choose.

In this ultimate guide, we will help you understand more about dried fruits and why they are a great ingredient to work with.

What are Dried Fruits?

So what exactly are dried fruits, other than fruit that has had most of its water content removed?

The most popular dried fruit are raisins, and they have become such a household staple that we forget raisins are dried fruit. But there’s more to dried fruits than just raisins.

Almost any fruit can be dried fruit, except for fruits with high water content like watermelon and cantaloupe. The best dried fruits are pears, apricots, cranberries, figs, bananas, apples, mangoes, and prunes. Oftentimes, these fruits are naturally sweetened and don’t require additional sweeteners.

Dried fruits often get the misnomer as being high in sugar when it is the loss of volume that gives the fruit high sugar content. The sugar in the fruit was found in the fruit before the water was removed; the only difference is that there is a lot less of the fruit now than there was when it was full of water. This makes dried fruit seem like they have high levels of sugar when it is the volume of the fruit that has drastically reduced.

Shereen Lehman with verywellfit.com explains, “When you compare fresh and dried fruit by volume, then you’ll always find more sugar and calories in the dried fruit. But if you analyze them piece by piece, the sugar and calories will be about the same.”

How is Dried Fruit Healthy?

Dried fruit contains antioxidants, fiber, and minerals. Antioxidants are important because they improve blood flow throughout the body and decrease the amount of oxidation that occurs within the body. This means an overall lower risk of developing diseases related to the heart and cardiovascular system.

Raisins are ideal dried fruits to eat because they have been shown to lower high blood pressure, regulate blood sugar levels, reduce cholesterol, and reduce appetite. By replacing food that is high in sugar with raisins can significantly reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Adda Bjarnadottir with Healthline writes, “One piece of dried fruit contains about the same amount of nutrients as the fresh fruit, but condensed in a much smaller package. By weight, dried fruit contains up to 3.5 times the fiber, vitamins, and minerals of fresh fruit. Therefore, one serving can provide a large percentage of the daily recommended intake of many vitamins and minerals, such as folate.”

What to Steer Clear from with Dried Fruits

There are many additives that are found in dried fruits because of the way that the fruits need to be preserved when packaged. These additives are mostly sulfites which can be harmful to people with asthma or other respiratory issues.

Potassium sorbate is another food additive that preserves the condition of the food so that it doesn’t spoil or turn colors. Potassium sorbate typically does not cause a reaction on most people, but the FDA must include it on the label for consumers to know it is present.

The last thing you want to be mindful of when choosing dried fruits is the sugar content. Sugar is a natural compound found within the fruit, but this is not what you’re looking for. You need to check the ingredient list of the dried fruit to see if sugar is listed as an ingredient. If it is, you know you have dried fruit that has had sugar added.

Wake Internal Medicine Consultants explains how to know if your dried fruit has added sugars. “The sugars listed on the food label include sugars natural to the food as well as added sugars, so it is difficult to determine if sugar may have been added to a dried fruit just by looking at the grams of sugar on the label. To see if a product has added sugars, look at the ingredients list underneath the food label.”

Book a free consultation today so that we can help you take using dried fruits to the next level for your business. We will be happy to help!

Whether you’re marketing a dessert or a pantry staple, getting your food product out into the public eye has never been more difficult. Between the established brands and the up-and-comers, the industry is packed with choices across the board. We’ll look at how to stand out, even if you’re working in the most saturated of sectors, and why a food industry consultant might be the key to helping you connect with customers.

Singled Out

An entrepreneur has their eye on every aspect of the business, but they forget that the average person doesn’t. Even the most well-known brands have to simplify when it comes to how they speak to their customers.

It’s often best to pick one feature and sell it. Ask yourself a few key questions before you begin your campaign:

• Is your product the cheapest? The tastiest? The most nutritious?
• Are you marketing to time-strapped parents? College students? The elite home cooks of the world?
• What kind of brand recognition do you have? Do you cater to a niche crowd?
• What are your competitors saying? How can you distinguish your food from theirs?

This isn’t to say that you can’t advertise that your food is both delicious and affordable, only that you’re using the most prominent benefit to wedge a proverbial foot in the door in the minds (and shopping carts) of the consumer.

Consider Your Scale

Most companies would consider a boom in business a blessing, forgetting that scaling operations can be a tricky venture for even the most experienced magnate. If you’re going to market to the masses though, you need to have a plan in place if the public turns out in droves. You can’t count your chickens before they hatch, but you should have a basic strategy for what you’ll do just in case.

Seek Feedback

New food products often start small as a way to gauge public interest and general demand. The more you talk to people about what they’re looking for, the easier it will be to present and price your product. Make a product price too high and you might drive away the very people you’re trying to help. Make it too low and people might doubt the quality.

Hire a Food Industry Consultant

The right food industry consultants can use their buying capacity to get you a better deal and provide the kind of supply security that you’ll need if your business starts taking off. If you’re having a tough time finding ingredients or a reliable partner, they can start solving problems. All this support can be essential to streamlining your operations, which can result in anything from lower costs to a tastier product.

The Greater Goods has built a client base by looking out for your bottom line. We reduce ingredient and packaging costs, allowing you to pass those savings to the consumer and increase sales. We can help you achieve your goals so you can start developing the messages that will stick with your audience.

You might not realize it, but chocolate has many regulations and requirements that it must meet in countries all over the world. Chocolate seems so simple but the regulations and requirements make it much more complex.

Chocolate is made from the cocoa bean that is found in South America. The cocoa beans are cleaned, roasted, and removed from the hull. Then the bean goes through a press that turns it into a chocolate paste known as chocolate liquor. The chocolate liquor is pure bittersweet chocolate in its most natural form. Only then is the chocolate liquor combined with other ingredients, like sugar, milk solids, and milk fats, to create the different types of chocolate that we know today.

Pure Chocolate Regulations in Different Countries

Chocolate is classified into different categories of products throughout the world. The most common 3 products of chocolate are pure chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate.

Pure chocolate includes unsweetened, bittersweet, and semi-sweet chocolate. It is the category of chocolate that has the most cocoa mass and the least amount of sugar, making it rich in chocolate and not very sweet. There are many health benefits of pure chocolate. Pure, unsweetened chocolate is antioxidant, can help regulate blood pressure, and help protect your heart from plaque buildup.

Brain East Dean at Livestrong.com explains how pure chocolate helps our body. Dean writes, “The primary sources of antioxidants in most people’s diets are fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. However, chocolate is an excellent supplementary source of a class of antioxidants known as flavanols, which come from the cocoa beans used to make chocolate. Flavanols can reduce high blood pressure, decrease cholesterol, and boost circulation.”

Each country recognizes pure chocolate as a type of chocolate that has the largest cocoa mass and the percentage at which it is classified changes among the countries.

In the United States, pure chocolate must have at least 35% cocoa mass to be classified as a type of pure chocolate (bittersweet, semi-sweet, etc.).

In Japan, pure chocolate must have 60% cocoa mass. In Canada, pure chocolate must have 31% cocoa mass to be classified as pure chocolate.

Each country has requirements that regulate how much cocoa mass should be included in the chocolate product for it to be classified as chocolate.

Milk Chocolate Regulations in Different Countries

Chocolate that is combined with milk products is called milk chocolate. Milk chocolate will have sugar, milk solids, milk fats, and other additives to keep the chocolate smooth and combined.

For chocolate to be labeled as chocolate in the United States, it must have a minimum cocoa mass of 10%, but this is not the standard in other countries.

In Canada, the minimum cocoa mass is 25% for milk chocolate. In Europe, the minimum cocoa mass for milk chocolate is 35%.

As you can imagine, different cocoa mass requirements can cause a different taste among the different types of milk chocolate manufactured all over the world.

Because American milk chocolate has a lower cocoa mass with a higher sugar content, it has a different taste than European milk chocolate that has a staggering 35% regulation.

Susan Paretts with oureverydaylife.com describes why this is by saying, “Chocolate manufactured in the United States is generally sweeter than chocolate produced in European countries. This is mainly due to the fact that American chocolate contains less cocoa, which allows for the addition of more sugar or other carbohydrate sweeteners. European chocolate contains more cocoa and thus, less sugar.”

White Chocolate Regulations in Different Countries

Until 2002, white chocolate was not recognized in the United States as a chocolate. The FDA ruled that chocolate must contain chocolate liquor to be considered chocolate. However, chocolate liquor wouldn’t exist without cocoa butter, the fat that is found inside the cocoa bean before it is pressed to make the paste.

This is how white chocolate finally became recognized in 2002 by the FDA as being classified as chocolate, but there was a catch. In order for white chocolate to be classified as white chocolate, it must contain at least 20% cocoa butter. The cocoa butter will then be combined with sugar and milk solids to give it a sweet and creamy taste.

All countries that regulate chocolate follow the 20% cocoa butter regulation. The only location that doesn’t have a regulation on any of their chocolate is Hong Kong, China. Their Food and Environmental Hygiene Department regulates the ingredients that go into making chocolate, rather than the chocolate itself.

Meredith Allen at web.colby.edu further explains, “White chocolate, on the other hand, was not considered chocolate in the United States until 2002, when the FDA eliminated the regulation that products must contain chocolate liquor to be considered chocolate rather than a confectionery. The FDA instead regulated that white chocolate must contain at least 20 percent cocoa butter.”

• 

Who knew chocolate could have so many rules, requirements, and regulations? The Greater Goods is here to help you with anything you need to know about food regulations that expand farther than just chocolate. Book a free consultation with us today so that we can help your business grow.

Chocolate is more than just a dessert. Chocolate is a versatile ingredient that can be used in all different types of food. But chocolate can sometimes get a bad reputation as being a highly processed ingredient that has a high sugar content when, in fact, not all chocolate is the same.

Milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate are all variations of chocolate. Each type of chocolate has its own procedure that it must follow when it is processed. The process, the amount of cocoa used, and any additional ingredients are what determines the type of chocolate that is made.

How Chocolate is Made

Chocolate comes from a cocoa bean that is found in South America. The cocoa beans are harvested by removing the large pods on the trees and breaking them open to access the seeds. The seeds are then removed from the pod and laid out to dry up to a week. Drying causing the seeds to ferment which is what causes the chocolate aroma and flavor.

The beans are then cleaned, roasted, and removed from the hull, leaving what we know as chocolate. The chocolate is then crushed under rollers to create a paste. The paste is created from the cocoa butter of the bean and is used to produce all types of chocolate.

Unsweetened baking chocolate is made at this stage and is considered the most pure form of chocolate because it does not have any additional ingredients combined with it. It is simply the paste of the chocolate that has been solidified into a bar with no added ingredients.

Sheela Prakash at thekitchn.com describes unsweetened baking chocolate by saying, “Baking chocolate, in its most traditional form, is unsweetened chocolate. That means it’s 100 percent chocolate liquor (aka processed and ground cocoa beans) without any added sugar or flavoring, so it’s extra bitter and extra unpleasant to bite into. Unsweetened chocolate is meant to be used in a recipe where you’re using enough sweeteners to counter this bitterness.”

Cocoa Requirements in Chocolate

There must be a minimum percentage of the chocolate that is cocoa mass in order for chocolate to be labeled chocolate. The cocoa mass is the chocolate paste that is produced when chocolate is ground, so chocolate must contain a minimum percentage of cocoa mass in order to be classified as chocolate.

In the United States, the minimum requirement of cocoa mass in all chocolate is 10%, and the percentage increases depending on the type of chocolate that is being made.

Bittersweet, milk chocolate, and white chocolate manufacturers all have to follow the same standard of measurement if they want their product to be labeled as chocolate.

Melissa Clark at the New York Times discusses the requirements of cocoa mass in chocolate when she explains, “In order for something to be labeled chocolate in the United States, it must be at least 10 percent cacao mass. Most milk chocolate is 10 to 30 percent cacao; most bittersweet chocolates, 35 to 55 percent. (For white chocolate, only the cocoa butter is used, and it must constitute at least 20 percent of the bar.)”

Is White Chocolate Really Chocolate?

Yes, white chocolate is really chocolate as long as it meets the minimum requirement of cocoa butter that classifies it as chocolate.

When cocoa beans are ground and chocolate liquor is created (also known as chocolate paste), the paste is made from the fat of the cocoa bean. This is called cocoa butter.

When cocoa butter is extracted from the paste, it is combined with milk solids, milk fat, sugar, and lecithin. It is then solidified into a bar to create smooth, sweet white chocolate.

In order for white chocolate to be classified as chocolate in the United States, it must contain at least 20% cocoa butter. White chocolate is a way to put excess cocoa butter to use. Sometimes during the grinding process, there can be a surplus of cocoa butter that needs to be put to use. Creating white chocolate makes this happen.

Contact The Greater Goods today to book a free consultation so that we can discuss all things chocolate to help grow your business. We are happy to help your business capitalize on this profitable and successful industry, and we have the skills and resources to do it.

With months spent on developing a new product, getting the right ingredients, and finding a manufacturer and distributor, you’re finally ready to put your food product on the shelves. The problem for a lot of small businesses is being able to market your product.

When it comes to marketing, there can be a lot of tasks to juggle. However, if you start thinking of how the marketing of your product is going to happen from the get-go, then you’ll save yourself the headache. Here are some of our tips on how to market your new food product and drive consumer interest.

Establish A Brand Image

Having a consistent brand image across your product line will help build a trustworthiness with consumers. You can do this through where you source your ingredients and what kind of organic certifications you have.

Your brand image in terms of food is all about what consistency you offer consumers. They need to know the product you’re putting on shelves is delicious and/or healthy. Find what makes your product unique and highlight that in your marketing. 

Also, consider the design behind your brand. It’s not just about the quality of your product, but also how the packaging or product design looks. If this is part of a line of products, look for packaging consistency across the entire line of products. This establishes a brand image and customers will associate that packaging with your entire line of food products.

Amanda Bowman at Crowdspring highlights some important questions to ask when you’re designing a product:

“As a product’s first impression, packaging has to fulfill the three Ws of good packaging design: 

• What is this? Inform the customer about the product.
• What does it do? Provide some instruction or clue as to the product’s functionality.
• What’s the value? Why should anyone buy it?”

Test with Consumers

If you’re a small business that normally sells their product at farmer’s markets and conventions, this can be a great place to try out your new product. Any regular customers you have who are loyal to your business will spring up on the opportunity to try something new – but what about those who don’t frequent your business as often? Include a free sample with every purchase of a product, or offer a discount on your new product. In person, people generally tend to try things if they aren’t absolutely pushed to. A free sample added to their order should be enough to market your new product.  

Once consumers have tried out your product, ask them the next time you see them. Social media is a great place to do this, too. With marketing newsletters and social media posts, you can easily reach your clientele and see what’s selling and what may not be working.

M Source says one of the best ways to figure out if your product will sell is to just get it on the shelves and test the waters:

“Once you are comfortable that there is enough customer interest in your product, the next level of expansion and validation is to get a test inside of a store.  To actually have your product placed on store shelves. Because that is a more valid test of a product you might be planning on expanding into retail stores.  In other words, the next level of testing, is to test where you’d actually be selling it.”

At The Greater Goods, we specialize in organic food like nuts, nut butters, dried fruits, cocoa and chocolate. Feel free to contact us for a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers.

Food businesses require a lot of planning and hard work. There are many laws and important safety rules that food businesses must follow. Knowing how to get started can help you set up your business for success. You’ll need to engage in proper planning and get help from a food business consultant. Here’s what you need to know.

Form the Idea

If you’ve never had a food business before, the easiest ideas are those that require little investment and planning. Candy and packaged snacks are common first-food-business ideas, because candies transport easily and require simple packaging.

Other relatively easy first-time food ideas include herbs, seeds, baked good ingredient kits, tea and coffee. Your food business consultant can help you decide whether your food idea is realistic given your start up budget and other resources. One of the resources you should familiarize yourself with during this process is the handbook from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Research the Supply Chain

Use healthy, safe ingredients, and if necessary, know the ingredients within the ingredients. This is important for proper labeling and food safety. It’s vitally important to be honest and truthful on your labeling. Are you labeling your pasta sauce as organic? Check your food supplier’s organic certification to ensure that you’re labeling your foods accurately. Get your foods from reputable, known sources.

Pick a Business Location

Small businesses, especially beginning businesses, can work out of just about anywhere, as long as you’re adhering to proper food safety practices. If you don’t want to run your business from your home, investigate shared commercial kitchens, local commercial facilities, or consider working with an existing manufacturer. All of these options come at different price points. Do your research and choose the one that’s right for you.

Choose the Right Packaging

Packaging is important. Attractive packaging attracts buyers. Food packaging is also important for food safety purposes, so it must be durable, it must properly protect and preserve your food, and it must withstand the shipping process.

Packaging involves more than just the actual package your food is stored in. It also includes any boxes you send through the mail. Buy samples of packages and experiment with options before making your final decision. Hire a graphic designer to create the label. Don’t make your own label unless you have a background in graphic design. Your food business consultant will know where to find good packaging options.

Contact an Experienced Food Business Consultant

There’s a lot more to starting an online food business than you might realize. Before you can start your business, you’ll need to make a budget, set a pricing schedule, make connections in the industry, know the laws that pertain to your business, find insurance for your business and start keeping business records. That’s a lot to do! Working with an experienced food business consultant can help you get off to the right start.