Category: News

Launching a new food product typically costs at least $12,000 and is fraught with challenges. Overlooking a single aspect of this process can prevent a product from moving off the shelves. The packaging is a major part of selling a product, especially the first time a customer buys it. The following steps will show you how to avoid many of the common mistakes in packaging and marketing a product.

1. Choose a Food Industry Consultant

Compile a synopsis of your product design before you start working with a food industry consultant, including colors, general appearance, and the emotions you want to invoke. You also need to specify the parts of the design you want the consultant to handle, especially if you’re on a tight budget. However, you should let the consultant select the path to follow since you’re paying for their expertise. Ask for the portfolio and previous work of your food industry consultant to ensure they have experience in handling businesses similar to yours. For example, you should look at larger firms if you’re planning a multimedia campaign that includes print, TV, and web ads.

2. Build Your Brand

A product brand is an umbrella that houses all the variations of your product. It should reflect your concept and philosophy while still being simple enough to remember easily. Furthermore, your brand should show the sense of pride you have in your products. Effective brands also use a color scheme that remains with consumers even if they forget the name.

3. Select a Printer

Printers have specializations, so it’s important to ensure they’re familiar with your packaging requirements. Your food industry consultant should be able to provide the printer with the specifications they need, including file formats. The rule of thumb in packaging is that you should never obtain more than six months’ worth of packaging at a time, primarily due to the frequent changes in labeling regulation. In addition, pressure-sensitive label adhesive only has a shelf life of one year, even under ideal conditions.

4. Launch your Product

Your sole focus should be on getting your product to the public, once you decide to launch it. If you do this at a trade show with prospective buyers, book appointments in advance to ensure you can give each one your full attention. You should start with small to medium chains, especially those specializing in your niche. Specialty chains have a greater incentive to build the brand loyalty you’ll need to succeed in a larger chain. However, these businesses will often ask for exclusive rights to sell your product, an option you should consider with caution.

Summary

The Greater Goods is a food industry consultancy that helps young companies thrive, especially those in the health and functional foods industry. We help develop brands, source ingredients, and locate manufacturers. We also have the experience to help you experience the explosive growth you want, no matter what your roadblocks are. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you sell your latest product.

In a time that has slowed down the economy and made millions of people work from home, it seems the food industry has been going strong. Food production is still running since people are still buying food, and this has been great for some businesses. 

For others, the food production workload can be quite heavy. And working from home isn’t necessarily helping. 

This is where a food consultant can come in handy, since they can offer your company assistance and advice to navigate the many challenges of remotely managing food production and distribution. 

Here are some tips on how to effectively communicate with a food consultant and maintain a good working relationship online. 

Prepare Meeting Notes & Talking Points

Online meetings can really hit the point of being never-ending. This is why it’s so important to come to every meeting as prepared as you can be. 

When meeting with a food consultant, a video chat or phone call often work best. It’s important that when you schedule a meeting, you adhere to the allotted time you’ve both agreed upon. Start the digital meeting by outlining what it is you want to talk about. The more succinct your points are, the more efficient the meeting will be. 

Here’s some great tips as noted by Harvard Business Review at keeping meetings to the point and succinct: 

“Prior to the conversation, set clear objectives, and send a pre-read if appropriate. During the session, use an agenda, set meeting ground rules, take breaks, and clearly outline next steps (including timing and accountabilities) after each section and at the end of the meeting.”

Keep It Formal

While working from home has caused things to slow down and loosen up, it’s important to keep a professional demeanor when working with anyone in your business. The biggest difference here being that we’re all able to access our work emails and business dealings from our home computers. 

While it may be tempting to want to check in as much as possible, it’s important to keep your correspondence in a business-formal manner. If you want to get ahold of them, send an email, call or leave a voicemail on their business phone. And, book regular meetings with your business consultant as a type of check-in if you want to get updates or advice. 

Drew Bowers, a research psychologist provides this helpful tip on how to conduct any meetings you’ll have with your food consultant: 

“‘We have found that it is best for presenters to either design their data or presentation according to the environment they will be presenting in, or to choose the best environment to represent the data they have.’ Bowers says, ‘You can’t simply take a presentation you gave in front of a live audience at a conference and throw it up on a video monitor for a virtual audience and expect the same results, because you’re limited, to a degree, in how you can interact with your virtual audience.’”

Find the Right Consultant That Suits Your Needs

Just because you’re not able to meet people in-person, doesn’t mean you can’t get a good sense of who they are. When you meet with a consultant in a video meeting or phone call, don’t be afraid to tell them what it is you’re looking to accomplish. 

Tell them the goals that you’re looking to achieve and what you want your food product or company to be. The food consultant will share their expertise and what their plan of action would be. From there, you can decide if their services are a good fit for your needs. 

Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta shares this advice to follow up with any new clients and business partners that you meet with virtually: 

“[Nick Mehta] also advises following up after the meeting with notes, which provide a written source of truth and reassure the customer that you plan to take action. And as an extra thoughtful touch, Mehta suggests sending your clients a gift card to a local restaurant through an online service like Toast as a post-meeting thank-you.”

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. We specialize in organic ingredients, dried fruit, nuts, nut butter, chocolate and cocoa. Reach out to us if you’re interested in our services. 

Perhaps you’ve never heard of food business consultants before now, and you’re wondering how we could tie into the marketing of your new product. Simply put, we’re here to help you. We understand that start-up companies have many difficulties when it comes to getting off the ground, we’ll help you tackle them one by one.

A Food Business Consultant Can Help Source Products

Maybe you can’t find a key component that is required for your product, but that’s one of the ways that food business consultants like the Greater Goods can help with. Components are more than just ingredients or additives in a product. They can be a part of a manufacturing chain or distributing strategy. We can help locate a component while assuring secure delivery. More so, once we know what type of product you wish to sell, we can help you find buzz-generating companies to work with. Think things like high-quality plant-based manufacturers for your meat substitute product, or famous flour mills or dough companies to provide for you, or even renowned delivery and supermarket chains to help you put your creation out there.

Setting Prices to Make the Sale

Another frequent problem that troubles start-ups and even established companies is pricing their products. This is highly dependent on the consumer demographics predicted to purchase your product, the location (and therefore cost of living), cost of manufacturing and marketing, and many other fixed and variable costs. The same product sold at a Yellowknife grocer would be listed at a far cheaper price than in a Vancouver supermarket, for example. Even when your product is stocked on shelves, food business consultants can still work with you to bring the price down by shaving off unnecessary expenses that could be generated down the road.

Bringing Your Costs Down to Help You Reach a Wider Audience

This brings us to a further look into the expenses of manufacturing and marketing, particularly the latter. We have comprehensive knowledge of the food business and therefore can assist you in finding the right quality for the right dollar to fulfill your needs. Also, we are on the constant search to find better and more efficient goods. We want to help you get the best deals and further your bottom line.

Building Buzz through Targeted Marketing

In the information age, hype and buzz is everything. Marketing has become more and more important not only so that you can compete with other companies, but so that you can reach your target audience, too. We’re familiar with just how powerful good marketing is on audiences like Canadian children, for example. With a Tweet or short video, you can also reach large portions of a demographic. Coming up with your personal story or one tailored to be relatable with your target audience is the best way to generate buzz—and we can help you do that.

Whether you may be struggling to find your way or you have set forth with solid goals in mind, we know that you are aiming high. Here at the Greater Goods, we have connections and contacts in many places in the industry. Whether you wish to expand nationally or internationally, we have the means to introduce you to prospective clients who may be interested in your product. We firmly believe that when you succeed, we succeed along with you. Have questions or would you like to learn more? Contact us today!

Bringing your organic food product to the market can be a long and arduous process, filled with challenges. Organic food is more prevalent in the food industry than ever, but there are still rules and regulations to follow when it comes to getting your product certified organic. 

If you’re trying to get your product an organic certification and are curious on where to start, a food consultant and a food broker can be instrumental in this. Let’s break down some fundamental facets your product should have to get that regulation-approved organic certification. 

Concentrate on Ingredients

Organic food can be sourced from anywhere, and it can be commonly mistaken with locally-sourced food. However, organic food needs to meet the requirements of how it’s grown and treated and not necessarily where it’s from. 

This means you have a wide range of choice of organic ingredients since you can find them from anywhere in the world. For instance, at The Greater Goods, we worked with a client on sourcing the date sugar for their product and ensuring that each step of the process met organic requirements. 

The USDA defines why organic ingredients should be certified and checked during production: 

“Amidst nutrition facts, ingredients lists, and dietary claims on food packages, ‘organic’ might appear as one more piece of information to decipher when shopping for foods.  So understanding what ‘organic’ really means can help shoppers make informed choices during their next visit to the store or farmers’ market. USDA certified organic foods are grown and processed according to federal guidelines addressing, among many factors, soil quality, animal raising practices, pest and weed control, and use of additives.”

Find the Right Suppliers

It can be difficult to source where each of the ingredients in your product is going to come from, since there are a myriad of suppliers that offer a range of ingredients. 

This is where a food consultant can come in handy, because their industry connections can help you find the right fit for your product. Suppliers have the raw organic ingredients, and a food consultant can work between the supplier and your company to make sure it’s a good fit for your product. 

The US-Canada organization Health Care Without Harm points out that effective communication with your suppliers is key: 

“Some suppliers may assert that they would like to provide non-GE versions of their products but that doing so is impractical given their supply chain. It is true that making the changes needed to provide non-GE foods can be complex. Large suppliers offer thousands of products from hundreds of companies, who each in turn use dozens or hundreds of suppliers for raw ingredients.”

Work with a Food Broker to Meet Product Demands

Simply put, a food broker can be the solution to bringing your organic product to the market in an efficient manner. Getting the advice and help of someone who has experience dealing with food distribution can make all the difference. 

A food broker knows who to contact, is familiar with each step of the process, and is working specifically for you and your needs. Brokers have often dealt with a variety of companies, from big corporations to small businesses, and they can adapt to product demands. 

A food broker is also a great source of information. Make sure you’re working with the right food broker that is familiar with organic ingredients and organic products, since you’ll want to work with someone who knows the entire process and regulations behind organic food. 

Professor John Quelch explains that the demand for local food is steadily growing: 

“As in many other categories, you will see a blend of global and local. There will continue to be a passion and a demand among a minority of consumers for locally produced, farm-to-table food—that trend will continue. The more people who have the disposable income to be able to pay the price differential, and the more informed consumers become, the more that trend will grow.”

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. 

A food broker can be that link between getting your food product or your food manufacturing business on the right track to success. If you’ve never hired a food broker before or you’re interested in seeing how to improve your experience with hiring outside consultants, it’s important to ask the right questions when you first meet with them. Here’s five questions you can ask a food broker in that first consultation meeting. 

What previous experience do you have?

This is vital to understanding what kind of business and educational experience the consultant has. Depending on the type of business they’ve worked with, they’ll be able to suit their working style to your needs and goals. Food brokers that work primarily with small businesses are obviously going to be a better fit for a small business consultation than food brokers that focus on big manufacturers. 

The HACCP also highlights that previous references and case studies are important to understanding experience: 

“The food safety consultant should provide a list of references or testimonials from food businesses that they have undertaken consultancy work for. It is very important that you contact the reference to obtain a first-hand account of the scope of works that was completed and the food consultant’s performance outcome.”

What kinds of food have you worked with primarily before?

This adds onto the idea of experience, not only with whom, but with what in the food industry. It makes sense that every type of food and ingredient is handled much differently since it’s just significantly different aspects of farming, producing and selling. 

Look to hire someone specific to your needs to make sure you’re getting advice that works for you. For example, here are The Greater Goods, we specialize in nuts, dried fruits, chocolate, cocoa and organic/non-GMO ingredients and thus have a lot more experience working with those ingredients. 

Can you describe your process of working with a business?

Asking about a broker’s process will give you a more comprehensive look into what your professional relationship will look like. Their approach of how to go through a business plan, how they will fit their working style to your business, and what their typical beginning to end plan looks like. Ask them to bring up a previous client’s experience if you want to find out more about how they can adjust their work around to fit your needs. 

Keap.com expands more on finding a broker to fit your needs: 

“Ensuring you find the right questions to ask a business advisor to help your business grow is a large investment, and even if a consultant or agency is very good that does not automatically mean that they are right for you and your business. With the right questions about both how they think about growing your business and how they work as a person or agency, you can find the right one to help your business and keep you sane at the same time.”

Why should we hire you over other food brokers?

This is a more competitive question, but the food industry is naturally competitive and you want to know that whoever you’re hiring to help you is just as driven as your business. This is where they can list more of their personal skills, highlighting what it is that makes them stand out over other the competition. 

Why are you passionate about connecting with our company and our product?

Whatever answer you get from this ensures that the person you’re hiring is genuinely passionate about working with you and getting the best product out there. People who are in the food industry to make food products healthy, accessible and connect with others who are passionate are an ideal candidate. 

American Express also explains more on why hiring a passionate consultant is important:

“‘A lot of people give more thought to buying an expensive piece of clothing than to hiring a consultant,’ says Flaquer, founder of Saltar Solutions, a branding and marketing consultancy in St. Paul, Minnesota. ‘They just ask, ‘What do you do?’ and then hire with little thought. Don’t hire someone just like yourself,’ she says. ‘Bring in someone with different skills who can really help move your business forward.’”

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 food industry sees constant evolution and change, with new trends popping up all the time. Veganism is here to stay and it’s growing at a large rate. As more and more people go vegan or switch to vegan products, the industry itself is competitive to get their products out onto the market. Equally as competitive is the marketing behind vegan products. Let’s break down some important tips on how to market your vegan food products. 

Focus on the Product’s Flavour & Origin

At the end of the day, when consumers buy food, they want to know what it’s going to taste like and where it’s coming from. For vegans, they’re used to getting flavour from spices and vegetables, but for meat eaters, they have the assumption that vegan food is not as flavourful as the food they regularly eat. 

This is where marketing comes into play. Emphasizing that your product tastes good and being transparent about where the ingredients are sourced are all huge benefactors to great marketing. 

The World Resource Institute spoke to Food Business News about marketing vegan foods based on flavour:

“‘Flavorsome ingredients, flavor-enhancing cooking methods or an interesting combination of flavors can all communicate an attractive flavor profile,’ W.R.I. said. ‘Many classic meat-based dishes use this well. Think of Moroccan-spiced lamb, slow-roasted beef brisket or sweet-and-sour chicken. Flavor-packed language could be a strategy that increases the sensory appeal of plant-rich dishes to be as high or higher than meat-centered dishes.’”

Don’t Focus on “Meat-free” Terminology

Even though veganism is growing rapidly in the consumer market, people often don’t prefer terminology that tells them their food is meat-free when they’re looking for products. If you want to stay true to your product while appealing to more than people who eat vegan, add more terms like “plant-based” and focus on what the ingredients are. “Meat-free” may seem more unappealing to consumers and “plant-based” highlights what’s in the food product. 

Econsultancy emphasizes the importance of focusing on plant-based terms:

“For brands and retailers, this proves that marketing needs to be smarter, with success stemming from the positioning of ‘plant-based’ as part of a deliberate lifestyle choice rather than a mere alternative to meat. Rebel Kitchen is an example to note, with the dairy-free brand using a challenger narrative to highlight the fact that it offers something of real value in its own right. Its tone of voice is bold and unapologetic, putting a clever spin on its lack of dairy with descriptions like: “Made with simple ingredients and nothing added. It’s what we’ve left out that counts.”

In a Growing Competitive Field, Consult Outside Services 

If you’ve tried to market your product and it’s not proving effective, or if you are unsure what language and visuals will work best, consider consulting outside services to help. Often, a food or marketing consultant can bring their industry experience that fits your needs and brings you success. While making vegan products can seem like a lot to do if you’ve never gone through the process, a food consultant can take you through the steps like a pro. 

Katrina Fox at Forbes says vegan food products are a great benefit for businesses: 

“It’s a brave new business world, one in which growing numbers of consumers will continue to demand sustainable and ethical products. If you’re about to start a business, it’s worth making your products vegan-friendly from the start. If you already have a business, consider veganizing it by removing any animal-based ingredients or components.”

Contact us to book a free consultation where we can outline what vegan and non-GMO ingredients we specialize in and how we can help your business. 

Getting your food product to market requires participating in a channel through the manufacturer and to the consumer. The supply chain will require middlemen in most cases to get that food product prepared for consumption. This could include the steps for combining ingredients, baking, freezing, packaging, bottling, and more before it is shelved or served for consumers.

What are the Differences Between Distributors, Wholesalers and Retailers?

The distributor, wholesaler and retailer are the most common steps in the supply chain to get the product to the customer. The food product typically takes several steps to be prepared in a way that works well for preservation, display and sale. Even fresh fruits and vegetables are sent to a packaging house (distributor) and then passed to transporters to get them to the grocery store (retailer). In some cases, the produce may be sold directly from the wholesaler (farmer), but in other cases, another wholesaler will purchase the product from the grower and work through the distributor to get them onto retail displays.

Food Distributors Sell to Wholesalers

When a new food product is ready to take to market, the creator has to first get a manufacturer on board. The distributer has to get the food created in large quantities to be ready for selling. In most cases, the food creator is going to sell to a wholesale rep who can buy a lot of products, though in some cases the distributor will approach a retailer directly.

Food Wholesalers Sell to Retailers

Food wholesalers have to find creators, growers, or distributors with a finished product that they can source to fulfill their retailer’s needs. Food wholesalers convince the retailer to get the food products onto the shelves or into the menu for the customer. In most cases, the wholesaler buys large quantities of products from the distributor at a lower (wholesale) price to markup and sell to their retailer connections. Distributors have the motivation to sell larger quantities at cheaper prices since they do not have to scramble to find multiple retail buyers.

Food Retailers Sell to Consumers

Food retailers could include grocery stores, concessions stands, restaurants, organizations, and other groups that purchase food at wholesale prices to sell to consumers. There is a big difference in the business model and merchandising objectives of the retailer compared to the wholesaler. The wholesaler has to market the products in an appealing way for the retailer, while the retailer has to market the products in an appealing way for the individual consumers.

Getting Help from a Food Broker

There is a specific group of professionals that help do the busywork to form relationships between ingredient producers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. A food business consultant (or broker) can help reduce the costs of getting a food product to market by helping source ingredients, packaging companies, and buyers. If you think a food business broker could help you, contact us today for a free consultation

If you’ve got your product out on the market and want to improve on it, or are at the beginning stages of getting started, it’s a good idea to consider switching your ingredients over to organically-sourced ingredients.

This can be a game-changer not just for the quality of your product, but also the quality you’re promising to retailers and consumers, and ultimately showing that your business is trustworthy in working hard to source these ingredients. 

Health Benefits

While keeping a balanced diet that fits your needs is also vastly important, consumers also want to know where their food is coming from and many opt to choose organic food products for this reason.

The Organic Trade Association explains why going organic is becoming the more beneficial option:

“While proving health benefits of eating a particular food is a complex question to answer, evidence is mounting that there are some healthier nutritional profiles linked to consuming various organic products. For instance, a research article published in December 2013 in PLOS ONE found that organic whole milk contained significantly higher concentrations of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids compared to milk from cows raised on conventionally managed dairy farms.”

The Organic Market is Growing and Bigger Than Ever

Luckily now, it’s becoming easier to find organic ingredients thanks to the boom of the industry and connecting with manufacturers across the world. Whatever food you’re looking for can be found pretty easily, especially with the help of other manufacturers and food brokers to facilitate deals.

Other people in the food industry are attending conferences, meetings, working with each other and have a huge list of connections that they can point you to, to find exactly what you’re looking for. And that’s only continuing to grow as organic food sales grow. 

Ecovia Intelligence says food sales in Canada are getting bigger by the year: 

“The Canadian market for organic foods is now worth Can $5 billion (USD 3.7 billion). According to Statistics Canada, retail sales have increased 57% over the past five years. Two in three Canadians (67%) now spend at least some of their weekly grocery budget on organic items, up from about 50% in 2014. The rise in organic food sales extends across multiple categories from fruits and vegetables to nuts and even desserts such as pies.”

Finding Certified Organic Ingredients Can Be Easy 

With the market growing, it’s easier than ever before to get your product certified. There’s a wide array of places to get ingredients and plenty of detailed methods to get organic certification. The more information and resources there are, the more efficient your business can be at getting those certifications done in time to start getting your product out to retailers. 

The Organic Council of Ontario highlights more on organic certification:

“It takes a producer up to three years to transition to the production and sale of certified organic products. During the transition phase, products can still be sold, but not as certified organic. If producers can prove that no prohibited substances have been used on the property in the last three years, it can take a minimum of 15 months to achieve certification.”

At the end of the day, finding organic ingredients that are healthy and cost-effective are just as important to us as they are to you. We specialize in working with organic, non-GMO and vegan ingredients and have industry experience working with these products.

We offer free consultation where we can outline what it is we can do for your business. It’s the communication with clients and the one-on-one consulting that helps a food broker find the right ingredients for you and where to source them. 

If you’re just starting your small business or you’re looking to expand to a bigger audience, it can be an uphill battle to get there. It can be beneficial to look for advice from a food consultant to get expert advice from a professional and find you those connections to take your business plan to the next level. 

Get Expert Advice from Professionals

Food consultants have worked with a number of clients with varying degrees of business. From big to small, they know how food manufacturing operates and what it takes to succeed. Every business’ definition of success is different and a food consultant can offer a wide array of knowledge and experience to give you the advice your company needs to expand their reach. 

Rance Lab explains here how to best go about hiring a food consultant: 

“The food, beverage and hospitality market is dotted with such service providers and experts. Ask your peers, colleagues, friends and family and then read the reviews online on the internet to get through the best one for your business. Hiring an individual food consultant or a food consultant company comes with the perk of modification and customization of business structure that draw a successful path.”

Whether it be working on product ingredients, finding manufacturers and retailers that will work with you, or working to reach more consumers, seeking professional help fast-tracks where you want to go. 

Second Opinions and a Web of Connections Can Go far

Let’s say you already have a business plan in place and are ready to get started. Bringing in a food consultant to evaluate your plan and give you a second opinion on what could be changed or where to go next can really elevate your business for future success. A consultant is able to work with you to attend to your needs and tell you what the best course of action is for your plan. 

The government of British Columbia further expands on the importance of having a team of people working with you:

“The early stages of business growth involve many different tasks and responsibilities. It is important to develop a team of knowledgeable and experienced people right away. Mentors, colleagues and industry leaders are an invaluable part of your network.”

Also keep in mind that a consultant has plenty of connections and ways to reach other businesses that can help you out. If you’re looking for the right manufacturer of certain ingredients and the right location to create your product, they can help you set up that first meeting with them. 

Obtain More Credentials and Certifications with a Food Consultant

If you’re manufacturing a new product, or if you’re just starting to, a food consultant can come in and provide you with expert advice on how to obtain those credentials. They can help you find the right place to get your credentials and certifications done and even go through your business and see what you need to make sure your business passes the test. 

For bringing your start-up to life and helping your staff get the coaching, training, and certifications they need, a consultant can help you take leaps forward and have a competitive edge early on. 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. 

If you have a great idea for a food product, it may be worth pursuing. Many of the best food products in history began as an idea in someone’s home kitchen. Think about Colonel Sander’s chicken, or Mrs. Field’s cookies. They both started from humble beginnings. Now their brands are recognized the world over. All you need to launch a food product from scratch is a quality food business consultant, knowledge of your target niche market, self-confidence and perseverance. Here’s a short-hand guide to launching your food product from scratch.

Educate Yourself About Local and Federal Laws

No matter where you live there will be laws and regulations about how you can market, label, and sell your food product. 

Lease a Commercial Kitchen

You won’t be able to sell food made in your home kitchen, due to health department regulations. Find a commercial kitchen in your area to lease from on an hourly or weekly basis. Some places to look include culinary schools, vocational high schools, or even restaurants that aren’t open seven days a week.

Work With a Food Business Consultant

Once you think you have your recipe perfected, it’s time to bring in the experts. Work with a food business consultant that can assist you in launching your food product. The consultant can help you put the finishing touches on the recipe, design a powerful label, figure out marketing strategies, and even help you source less expensive ingredients so your profit margin is bigger. Don’t wait too long to bring in a food business consultant, because they will be an important factor in your success.

Consider Packaging

How you package your food product is almost as important as what’s on the inside. Keep in mind that it needs to able to be bulk-packaged and shipped and able to fit on existing store shelves or from hangers. You might also consider that consumers these days gravitate toward recyclable packaging and food products with minimal packaging. Your packaging choices will also influence the net cost of your food product, so you’ll need to carefully weigh design esthetics with practical considerations.

Look For Food Processors

Even if you have access to a commercial kitchen, once your food product takes off, you won’t be able to make everything yourself. You’ll need a food processor that is willing to take on your food product. It’s likely they’ll be in a different state, so you’ll need to schedule several in-person visits. Look for capabilities such as canning, bottling, pasteurization, and irradiation to ensure your food product is shelf-stable and safe to consume. Compare several food processors to ensure a good fit.

Begin Marketing

Once you and your food business consultant have decided your food product is ready to launch, you’ll want to work on a marketing campaign. Consider a combination of print, social media, and other online avenues to reach a broad consumer base.

There are many steps to launching a food product. But once you’ve done it you’ll be glad that you had faith in your original idea and followed through on it!

A food broker is great at finding the right ingredients based on your product needs. Since they’re so familiar with the food industry, they’ll know what they’re looking for. It’s often difficult to figure out the nuances of quality that come with finding the right ingredients. A food broker can help discern all these differences based on what your needs are. 

Finding the Right Ingredients

Organic ingredients can be hard to source but luckily, production is expanding and booming year by year. According to the Canadian Organic Grower’s Association, Canada has more than 5,000 organic operations as of 2015 and 66% of shoppers are purchasing organic foods weekly. The market for organic is booming and it’s not about to stop anytime soon, with more and more consumers looking for organically-sourced, vegan and non-GMO products. 

Consider what organic ingredients you’re looking to include in your product and make a clear list to present to your food broker. Based on all the criteria given, a broker keeps these aspects in mind and will find ingredients suited to your product. They also consider things like taste and texture and how that may impact the overall product. This is why having a good vision of the organic ingredients your product needs is important, and communicating that with a food broker helps them find the best ingredients possible. 

Organic Ingredients Matter to Us

We specialize in working with a wide range of healthy, well-sourced products, like organic, non-GMO, vegan and allergen-free certifications. Establishing these connections as a food broker helps us work with clients who are looking for these ingredients. 

To find the right products, we reach companies on a global level to find the right fit for your product. While working with Liva Foods, we searched for organic date sugar to be that perfect product for our client’s needs:

“The perfect date sugar was elusive—we weren’t able to find it even with our vast network of suppliers. In the end, we went to the Middle East and found it…We shepherded the date sugar through the process of organic and GMO-free certification. Now it’s shipped to California, where it’s processed, and arrives at Liva’s Ontario packaging facility at 50% of the landed cost of inferior sugars.”

Specialties at The Greater Goods

Our brokerage company specializes in chocolate, cocoa, nuts, dried fruits, and nut butters and have a vast knowledge of where to look for organic foods. Specializing in certain foods and ingredients can be key to developing the best product for the market. 

Food brokerages with specialties show that they have experience working with that product or ingredient. We offer free consultation where we can outline what it is we can do for your business. It’s the communication with clients and the one-on-one consulting that helps a food broker find the right ingredients for you and where to source them. At the end of the day, finding organic ingredients that are healthy and cost-effective are just as important to us as they are to you. 

No matter what industry you’re in, being a new business is a challenging task. Even not considering the start-up finances, the workload is never-ending. It can seem like there’s task after task, and that can be daunting to take on.

When you have a vision and want to see it through to the end, it’s important to bring in professional advice from people with experience and insight into the industry. One of the easiest first steps you can take is hiring consultants for your food business. 

Food business consultants manage those tedious steps of looking for the right ingredients, suppliers, packaging, and markets. These complicated tasks can be done much easier with some guidance. 

Provides Solutions & Increases Company Efficiency

Reaching out to consultants gives your business that competitive edge to get ahead of the slump of starting up, giving you a business-ready boost. Any problems that come with finding ingredients, sales, branding and distribution can be solved with the knowledge and effective communication they can provide.

If you’re struggling getting things started, finding suppliers, or finding the right ingredients, a food industry consultant can give you step-by-step processes to follow and provide solutions to issues that arise. Remember, they’ve dealt with food production before and have the knowledge to help you on your production. 

With starting a business now, you will encounter plenty of problems and consultants can step in and solve them and increase company efficiency. As Food Consultants Group points out, 

“More companies are realizing that it is not cost efficient to maintain in-house expertise in all functional areas. They are finding that by utilizing outside consultants, as the need arises, they can both save money and tap into a wealth of experience that they simply can not afford to maintain themselves.”

A food industry consultant not only saves you those gruelling long days of planning, but also helps cut costs to production and sourcing ingredients, which is helpful in the long run. 

Important Things to Tell A Food Business Consultant

When you do hire a consultant, consider what it is you’re looking for. At The Greater Goods, we specialize in certain foods and product types, foods like cocoa and nuts, and organic and non-GMO ingredients. Find a brokerage business that matches your food news to get the best possible outcome for your products. 

When you first begin with a food consultant, make your intentions clear. Are you bringing a new product to market? Are you looking for coaching and help getting things started? Consultants have a wide range of expertise and can advise you, but it’s important to let them know what you want to get the best possible result. Racelab says,

“Goals are meant to be achieved, but never go over the top with your expectations. Stick to your budget, be strict not to push limits and also let the food consultant know that you are determined with your pre-decided plans and constraints.”

The better your vision is for your product or your business plan, the more the consultant will understand your intentions. Effective communication is key here for a completely customized experience. 

Real-World Experience & Mentorship

If you’re a new business, it can be tricky to navigate in uncharted territory. Questions like who to contact, what is a good first step, or how to get a product onto the market, can seem like unknowns. Having someone who deals with these cases on a daily basis and also has the right connections and experience can be hugely beneficial. 

Since a food business consultant spends lots of time getting to know your business and brings in their industry expertise, they can provide a kind of mentorship to your business and staff. As outlined by the Foodservice Consultants Society International, a consultant can:

“Provide expertise, knowledge and experience to provide assistance that does not exist in-house, or by providing resources not available at the time. As independent professionals their primary focus is the welfare of the client organization that they serve.”

For bringing your start-up to life and helping your staff get the coaching, training, and certifications they need, a consultant can help you take leaps forward and have a competitive edge early on. 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.