How to get a food product manufactured

June 2, 2019 10:00 PM

I have an idea for a product that’s not something I could create in my own kitchen. What would be the best way to make this a reality?
posted by KateViolet to Work & Money (11 answers total)

Is it something that you could create yourself if you had access to a commercial kitchen? Many cities have commercial cooking spaces available for rent.
posted by neushoorn at 11:00 PM on June 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

What is the problem you need to solve? Is it not something you can create because you don't have the skills, or because you don't have the equipment needed?
posted by erst at 11:14 PM on June 2, 2019

it would help to spell out why specifically you can't do a it at home. is it:

1) a novel industrial process, eg a more efficient way to make 100k brownies at a time,

2) a cooking technique that requires impractical or expensive gear, eg a pizza recipe that requires a coal fired 900F oven,

3) a design for a dish that you believe can be made, but you need a pro to figure out/troubleshoot the recipe, eg a cherry pie inside an apple pie inside a ..

4) a dish that requires a technique that you haven't mastered, eg a soufflé

whichever of these it is will help narrow down the answers
posted by zippy at 11:29 PM on June 2, 2019 [6 favorites]

I'm probably about to rain on your parade, but if you mean to make a product so it ends up in a supermarket, it is a crazy amount of work. You have to make a company, make and remake and remake (and so on and so forth) your prototype so it can be lab tested A LOT for lots of different things. You gotta work with packing technologists and food (safety) scientists, do exploratory marketing, do product sensory testing. I know in my city there are food testing labs that smaller companies can outsource some of this work to but I assume it is $$$. Plus you have to have a registered kitchen to do it all in. This is all assuming that the machinery exists to make it (even if it is not in your kitchen). If someone would need to engineer a new machine, that is a whole other layer of complexity. Then, you have to convince supermarkets to actually sell it.

I have never been through the process myself but I am a food science major, and new product development is a large part of the degree. I do know someone who started his own pickle/fermented food business and the repeated lab testing for bacteria etc. alone delayed his business opening by months.

I hate sounding so negative about it, but yeah, it takes a fair amount of capital. Though there is always Kickstarter I suppose?
posted by BeeJiddy at 12:34 AM on June 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

Taste Radio is a podcast that focuses on a different food/beverage company each episode, usually from idea to start up to whatever point they're currently at. When I was thinking about doing a food product launch I found a lot of very helpful information about the way things work by listening to the episodes that were the most closely related to the type of food I wanted to produce.

What BeeJiddy wrote seems pretty on point for going the traditional route, but I learned from listening to a bunch of episodes that there are many different paths people have used to successfully bring a food product to market, some more unorthodox than others.

Good luck with your venture!
posted by newpotato at 3:46 AM on June 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Look around your area for a kitchen incubator. These are economic-development initiatives that exist to help new food businesses launch. THey help you navigate the entire process, offer education, provide rental space and equipment, and assist with marketing. Sometimes you will find them associated with culinary schools or universities.
posted by Miko at 4:53 AM on June 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is a difficult question to answer as written -- a lot depends on the specifics of your idea, your location (and the food regulations that apply there), and the resources you bring to the table (including not just money, but experience and partnerships).

I second the recommendation to look for a food business incubator (for instance) or a small business development centre (for instance) in your area. Either or both might be helpful at the very beginning of your planning process.
- A small business development centre can give you advice (often free) on how to set up a company, build a realistic business plan, and seek funding.
- A food business incubator can help you with the specifics required for starting a food business, including advice on food safety, connections to food industry experts (such as a food scientist or product development expert) who may fill gaps in your own knowledge, help with finding your particular path to market, and access to commercial kitchen space and specialized food processing equipment.

Either of these will probably want you to start by writing a business plan, which might be a good exercise for you to try right now. Typically, an idea (even a very good idea) is not worth much -- the hard part is the execution, and a business plan can help you work that out.

You'll also want to look for guidance from authorities in your specific region about how to start a food business (for instance). Food is typically highly regulated, and it's important to be aware of the licensing and regulatory requirements before you start.
posted by ourobouros at 5:12 AM on June 3, 2019

The other thing people think happens is pitching an idea to Kraft or Nabisco or whoever. But that doesn’t work either, unless you already know people there and have a relationship. But if you happen to live near a facility for one of the big companies, you could ask them for a tour and learn more about the processes etc.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:06 AM on June 3, 2019

Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers- sounds pretty tricky! I wouldn’t be able to make myself as it would need some manufacturing equipment- think little shapes like Lucky Charms. Can’t see how I could make something like that myself...
posted by KateViolet at 2:28 PM on June 3, 2019

you might want to talk to a candy maker or perhaps someone with prototyping experience (an engineer/maker type) to see if there's a way to do a low volume run of prototypes of the thing you want to make. there may be a way to make the thing you want for cheap while you are trying out different ideas.
posted by zippy at 5:18 PM on June 3, 2019

You might also consider whether there's any way you could create a prototype version in your kitchen (or in a commercial kitchen). A prototype can help you work out your recipe, do some initial taste tests and market discovery, and get a more realistic sense of the challenges you'll need to overcome for full-scale production. A prototype is not usually going to be salable -- it's really just a test batch, and it's generally very expensive to produce. However, it's generally well worth it for what it teaches you. Even if you were Kraft or Nabisco, you would still start at the prototype stage -- they wouldn't begin by manufacturing a factory's worth of expensive custom equipment. Some ideas...

- Would a prototype work if it were just cut into a small pieces (instead of intricate shapes)? If the base has the consistency of dough, then you might be able to get away with using a bicycle pastry cutter to cut a grid.
- Can you fabricate a small-scale cutter that gets your ingredients into the right shape? What about 3D printing? There might be a maker-space in your area that could help.
- Is there equipment on the market that could get you partway there? For instance, what about a pasta makers with a custom-fabricated cutting plate? Or, as mentioned above, what about candy-making equipment (like a vintage candy drops maker or hard candy molds)?

Again, a food business incubator can provide a lot of insight into this process, and point you towards helpful resources. I'd encourage you to reach out to one in your area.
posted by ourobouros at 8:40 AM on June 4, 2019