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.”

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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.

It’s almost the new year, and a lot of us are glad 2020 is almost out of the way. With a new year comes a new market, and new products on sale. The food market is changing and growing as consumers change their buying habits.

With people sticking to an affordable, vegan, organic, and non-meat products in the new year, it’s a good year to potentially release a new product on the market. Here’s a look at the top food product trends for 2021.

Vegan Chocolate

Chocolate is not only a great dessert, it can also be a healthy snack if the ingredients are organic and well-sourced. Chocolate with vegan ingredients (meaning non-dairy based chocolate products) are on the rise and are expected to be trending in the year to come.

Coco Chocolatier points out that dark chocolate actually touts some health benefits:

“Research shows that dark chocolate contains a number of natural compounds that carry a variety of health benefits. This is particularly true in the case of vegan chocolate, as it is directly obtained from cacao – often referred to as a ‘superfood’. Recent studies suggest that the positive effects of cacao on the human body can be attributed to the high amount of healthy nutrients it contains – particularly flavonoids, as they have great antioxidant effects.”

Plant-based Proteins

With more consumers looking for meat alternatives, plant-based proteins are seeing bigger sales every year. Expect to see food products like tempeh, tofu, imitation beef, and other vegan-friendly proteins.

Plant-based foods are shaping the food industry, and at The Greater Goods, we can help you with your plant-based products. We specialize in foods like nuts, dried fruits, and chocolate, and making sure ingredients are sourced and your product is certified.

Food trends forecaster Elizabeth Moskow predicts that consumers will find a balance between eating meat and plant-based proteins:

“‘A trend in and of itself is that going forward in the next couple of years people are going to start coming to their senses and realize the answer is in the middle,’ Ms. Moskow said. ‘None of the products on either end is sustainable or something you can eat every day. Companies developing products that are once-in-a-while foods doesn’t make sense.’”

Mocktails

It’s always the right time for a fun, custom mocktail. This is an all-ages friendly food product that can be sold at any beverage retailer. Mocktails are on the rise as people want the fun cocktail experience at home, and a mocktail mix can have alcohol added into it. There’s also the opportunity for a more shelf-stable beverage option like powdered mocktail mix.  

Food expert Liz Moskow predicts non-alcoholic beverages like mocktails will be on trend in the near future:

“Clean living feels great, sometimes, but for the average American adult, imbibing with an alcoholic beverage often equates to being social and therefore isn’t going away anytime soon. Rather than choosing to regularly enjoy a boozy milkshake, or a Japanese whisky highball, or abstaining altogether, beverage that employ a light and refreshing approach with lower ABV options will better appease the base.”

How to Browse for the Upcoming Trends

If you’re trying to find out what new and upcoming food products will be trending in the year to come, check out Google Trends for this. Using their user search data, Google has compiled everything that’s trending, and all you have to do is search for specifics.

Searching for trends can take a bit of sleuthing skills, but focus on what you know you’d like to sell. For example, searching for “premium chocolate products” might turn out a more specific result. Or, just looking up “trending food products” can work if you’re just doing a general search.

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.

It might sound like a small detail, but the packaging you choose for the food and beverage products you sell can make all the difference in your product sales. The right packaging will keep your food safe while also appealing to a wide variety of customers. There’s a lot that must go into package selection. Good packaging is strong, visually appealing, functional and conforms to your company’s brand identity. Doing research and working with a food packaging consultant can help you through this process. Here’s what you need to know.

Know the Product Packaging Requirements

First and foremost, your product packaging must provide proper protection to ensure that your food or beverage product will remain fresh and safe for consumption. Product packaging requirements can be complex. Government regulations play a role in packaging requirements. Labelling requirements are government regulated as well. Following these requirements are so important that many small business owners benefit from working with a food packaging consultant on this issue.

Do Your Homework

Do research before choosing packaging for your food product. Know what your competition is doing. Read trade publications and find websites that discuss the issue of food packaging. Attend trade shows and join associations for small businesses that sell food products. Become an expert on this subject, and align yourself with an expert who can bring you up to speed on industry trends and recent innovations that could benefit your particular type of product. Get samples of packaging materials and try them for yourself. Know what works for your particular food items, and what doesn’t.

It’s very important to know what your competition is doing, so stay up to date on all their product releases. Follow their social media accounts and websites, watch for changes in the way they package their materials, and use your competition to get good ideas. You can learn what to do and what not to do just by watching others in your business.

Make Your Budget

Packaging costs money, and that affects how much you charge for your products. Make a budget that includes product pricing, business overhead, profit goals and other financial variables to determine how much you can afford to spend on your product packaging. Remember that your food packaging consultant can help you find the best deal on product packaging. Switching vendors, buying in larger quantities and shopping around can help you get the packaging needed for a price you can afford.

If you’re on a tight budget, use stock packaging rather than customized packaging. Hire a professional graphic designer to design a label that speaks to your brand identity and makes your food packaging look as appealing as possible.

Hire a Professional Food Packaging Consultant

Whether you’re new to the food industry or an experienced veteran who just needs better packaging for your product, hiring a professional food packaging consultant can help. To get started today, contact The Greater Goods for a free consultation.

As a food business, making the best possible product is of the utmost importance to you. From sourcing the right ingredients to finding the right manufacturer, there are many key stages to launching a food product.

The big step of getting your product to market could not happen without a food distributor. With a distributor working with your business on transportation, wholesale, and retail opportunities, you can rest assured that a distributor will get your product to the market. If you haven’t worked with a food distributor before, here are some tips on how to have a good working relationship.

Be Transparent on Cost

Whatever your food product may be, you should have the cost figured out before you take it to a distributor. Once you meet with them, they will ask for details about your product, like its shelf life, ingredients, whether it’s organic, among other things. They will also ask for the cost and factor in the price you’ll need to pay the distributor for their services.

Melissa Sonntag at Repsly explains that for your food product process to function with a distributor, the product’s price will likely rise:

“Going through a distributor may require you to raise the price of your product or change the way it is produced, so you will need to assess whether or not this would be a good move for your company. If your product now sells for $10 each, but distribution costs would force you to raise it to $17, it is crucial to understand how this will impact your sales and whether your customers will remain loyal following these changes.”

Make Your Intentions Clear

There are actually many types of distributors, so it’s important to make sure you’re working with the right one. An example is a broadline distributor, who carries thousands of shelf-stable food products and transports them to large markets. There are also specialty distributors who only service a smaller food category and provide to a certain niche.

Consider the reach you want your product to have. Starting off small is a great sustainable route to take, as you can assess production needs. Find someone like a cash and carry distributor, who will pick up and purchase your products directly to the business or market it’s selling to.

M Source Ideas further expands on the topic of a specialty distributor:

“Specialty distributors focus on a certain type of smaller category than a broadline distributor. For example, a fresh seafood distributor will have the supply chain and food safety skills and infrastructure to provide fresh seafood to seafood restaurants.  They will have products that a broadline distributor would not be able to provide. Or a specialty distributor might work exclusively with Middle Eastern restaurants, for example, across a specific region.  They would carry the specialized, niche ingredients that chefs at these restaurants would not be able to purchase from a broadline distributor.”

Work Out Transportation and Warehousing

Another aspect of your food product distribution is how it will be transported and where it can be stored. Most distributors will have their own warehouse and transportation services, but they’ll need to know the shelf life of your product.

Winnesota Transportation explains the warehousing function further:

“Many large distributors operate their own warehouses. Some smaller, more specialized distributors may forego warehousing altogether, transporting fresh products in refrigerated sprinters directly from the producer to the food service operator. It’s also common for small, local distributors to procure LTL shipments from larger distributors, using methods like cross-docking to deliver smaller shipments of products to food service operators.”

These are just a few of the many things a food distributor can offer your business. If you need help on working with distributors, our expert food industry consultants and food brokers can help you. 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.

Whether it’s trail mix, walnuts, raw almonds, or roasted chestnuts, there are thousands of nut products out there on the market. If you’ve got a product that you’re sure is going to be killer in the retail space, there’s nothing better than acquiring that wholesale distribution deal.

Getting to a wholesale deal is a whole endeavour on its own, however, and if you’re a small business, it becomes even trickier. Here are some things to keep in mind if you want to sell your nut product wholesale.

Focus on Ingredients

It may be obvious, but focusing on ingredients should be the most vital step in creating, producing, and selling your food product. If you’ve sourced your ingredients to ensure your product is certified organic, it’s important that you tout that characteristic when you can.

The food market is competitive and more than ever, there’s a high demand for organic and GMO-free products. The nut product you have to offer, whether it’s a type of trail mix or raw batch, needs to stand out from the competition in its own unique way.

If you have a specialty product, Melissa Sontag at Repsly recommends finding a specialty distributor for wholesale:

“If you sell a specialty food item that requires unique handling or is only meant to be sold in certain locations, a specialty food distributor may be right for you. Specialty distributors have experience dealing with products similar to yours, and thus will ease your mind of any worries you may have about your product not being taken care of properly.”

Look into B2B Marketplaces

To get your product to sell wholesale, you need distribution businesses that you can reach out to. You may be able to offer your product at wholesale rates, but an external business is often the best way to go, since they handle distribution to a wide market.

To look for these businesses, check out B2B marketplaces online or in person. There are plenty of opportunities across the country or right in your area, from networking to annual conventions and trade shows. Grow your professional network to see who may be interested in your product.

The Balance Small Business highlights the importance of building your professional network:

“More experienced small business owners in your industry or niche are often the best source of information about wholesalers. However, other retailers likely will not be eager to share supplier information with competitors. Invest time in networking to build the trust and connections that will help you find the best possible wholesale suppliers for your small business.”

Contact a Food Consultant

You may have used a food consultancy for their services before, perhaps on the pre-production side of things or finding the right ingredient supplier. However, a food consultant can also help you secure a wholesale deal in more ways than one. The first being that consultants have plenty of industry connections and can get you in touch with one that will suit your product’s needs.

With this industry knowledge, a food consultant can help oversee the wholesale process from beginning to end. They can make sure the deal runs smoothly and you’re satisfied with the negotiations and costs. In the end, your product’s performance may end up on big-box retail shelves.

Check out our client case study with Luisella, and how we helped this business source the best ingredients and connected them with an international broker.

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.

Getting to a wholesale deal is a whole endeavour on its own, however, and if you’re a small business, it becomes even trickier. Here are some things to keep in mind if you want to sell your nut product wholesale.

Small businesses are what keeps our economy running, now so more than ever. If you’re a food business running independently, it is a daily hustle to stay running. But the payoff is always worth it when you see your products make it to store shelves.

While it can be hard to run a food business independently, it is possible to do on your own or with a small team. Here, we share our tips on running your independent food business and how to thrive in an ever-growing market.

Budget Your Costs

Running any small business can be expensive, and there plenty of hidden costs attached to running a food business. If you’re developing a new product, there are plenty of different ingredient sources, manufacturers, consultants, and other members in your team that require compensation. This is before adding in other costs, like taxes, business operations, and others.

It’s best to start at your budget. Assess the expenses you have now, and what you’re hoping to make. Figure out how your revenue will be distributed to make sure everyone is compensated fairly. Planning with a budget is key to avoiding any unexpected costs.

Financial planner Doug Keller said to Business News Daily that overestimating your expenses is a good way to make an effective, safe budget:

“‘So much of business is planning and reacting to the unexpected,’ said Keller. ‘For small business owners, failing to anticipate an expense or its magnitude could prove disastrous and cripple the organization before it has had time to grow. To counteract that, it is important that business owners overestimate expenses and shield themselves. Doing so is a survival tactic that will allow owners to hedge against risk or failure.’”

Pace Yourself

If you’re just starting up your food business, you may be full of ideas and raring to get them all started. But going at full-blast can end up burning you out quickly. When you’re planning new food products, it’s best to pace yourself.

The production process of a new food product may take longer than you think, especially if your small team is overseeing every aspect of production. It is possible to produce all of the ideas you’ve got cooked up, but it will take time. Pace yourself and make a business plan, including as many details as possible, even after the product launches.

Dayna Winter from Shopify says to start small when beginning your food business:

“Look into easy first-time food-businesses that require a low investment, minimal equipment, and fewer shipping challenges and legal restrictions. Thirteen-year-old Charlie Cabdish makes and sells candied pecans from his family’s home. It’s a business he can still run from a domestic kitchen—between school work and basketball practice—nearly three years after launch.”

Find the Right Team

If sales are rising and your consumer demand is growing, it may be time to grow your team. Assess your business growth and what kind of positions will need to be brought on. This could mean hiring more administrative roles, customer service, sales, or other positions.

If your business needs help with certification, finding a manufacturer or distributor, sourcing ingredients, or developing a more effective business plan, this is where consultancy can come into play. Bringing an outside consultant can mean a lot for your business and give it the boost that it needs.

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.