Many people have the dream of creating a wildly popular food product that will take the world by storm and make them fabulously wealthy. Maybe their friends have told them that they make the world’s best chocolate chip cookie or pickled cantaloupe, and see this as their ticket to prosperity. While it is entirely possible for an individual to successfully launch a food product, it will be necessary to put in a lot of hard work to overcome certain challenges.
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The challenges faced by small food producers include:
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Getting the appropriate facilities and equipment
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Acquiring basic food science knowledge
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Gaining marketing skills and knowledge
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Things to Do Before Starting Up
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Researching the competition is key. There are certain questions to which a startup food producer will need answers. Are there are other people making the same or similar products? How much do they charge? How good is their product? Can they make a product of better or equal quality for the same or lower cost? Research is crucial to deciding whether or not it is feasible to enter the market with a certain product.
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Where to Start A Food Producing Empire
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A food producer will need the right equipment and the right location to make their product. It is usually not practical to do this out of a home. Among the many reasons for avoiding home production are that if the product does well, a home kitchen will be too small to keep up the demand. One way to overcome this obstacle is to find a food manufacturer willing to co-pack the product, meaning that the product can be made and packaged at their facilities. There are packaging companies that specialize in packing dry foods, for example. They will have the right materials and equipment to package items like a speciality jerky or trail mix. Other options include renting or buying the necessary equipment and facilities for production. Which option a food producer goes with will largely be determined by their budget and knowledge of the industry.
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The Challenges of Commercial Production
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While it is not necessary to have a food science degree to become a successful food producer, it is necessary to have some basic knowledge of the subject. Consulting with experts or reading a few books is a good way to start. The food producer will need to know how to ensure that their product is safe for the consumer. People getting sick is one sure way to guarantee that a food brand never gets off the ground. Food science also plays a role in the product’s shelf life as many retailers will need the product to last a certain amount of time before they will even think about stocking it. This means that a producer will have to consider options like preservatives or alternative ways of making the product so as to ensure that it will last longer. This will likely involve altering the recipe and thus the taste of the product, therefore it is a very big hurdle to overcome.
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Other Factors
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Packaging can be an expensive factor in bringing food products to market, but it is possibly the most important factor as it often determines whether or not a consumer will try a new product. Liability insurance is also important to food producers, and a co-packer will have it and in many cases insist that the producer has it too. No matter how careful a producer is, there is always the chance with a new food product, that something will go wrong in the process (mislabeling, spoilage, etc.) and that people will seek damages.
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If an individual is confident in their product and has put the requisite amount of thought and research into production, they may eventually find themselves with a food product that is successfully locally or even nationally.
Author Resource:
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