We’re often asked by food producers who are selling with us what it takes to start a food business that might ultimately be a great product or product line for Foodzie. This is where we’ll start collecting your wisdom and ideas as a resources list for aspiring commercial food producers everywhere.

We’re very excited at the prospect of helping you get your vision off the ground and into people’s mouths!
How did your business come about?

Food Entrepreneurship

Stephen Hall wrote both Sell Your Specialty Food and From Kitchen to Market (a classic) to guide home chefs in turning a product you’ve perfected at home into a commercial product. Read how San Angel Mole, a company that sells on Foodzie, used Mr. Hall’s book, which led to a gold award from the NASFT.

Sell Yourself: Cooking Up Profits – Tips for taking your home made products to market along with links, in Jean Chatzky’s blog. (Some input from Susie Wyshak of Foodzie and Anne Baker (Annie the Baker)

Penn State – Food Entrepreneur Resources – Penn State has compiled an impressive list of resources literally all over the map in terms of subject and geography to help food business entrepreneurs decide what approach to take with your food products.

Cornell University’s Northeast Center for Food Entrepreneurship provides comprehensive assistance to beginning and established food entrepreneurs to ultimately promote sustainable economic development of rural communities.

FDA – Starting a Food Business – FDA offers information on food safety guidelines and regulations it has established that are required for informative labeling and the safe preparation, manufacture, and distribution of food products.

National Center for Home Food Preservation has a handy list of links to state licensing websites.

Food Business Incubators and Community Kitchens

Community Kitchens are Cool – Emily, of Foodzie, discuss community commercial kitchens which provide clean, health-department compliant facilities as well as potentially comradery to help you as you commercialize your food products.

Kitchen Incubators Get Food Businesses Cooking – A Business Week article with a good overview about community kitchens and food business incubators.

Find Commercial Kitchens or Culinary Incubators Around the United States:

Culinary Incubator / Culinary Kitchen map and directory, dedicated to small food businesses who are trying to find a commercial kitchen to cook their product.

Boston - Nuestra Culinary Ventures – NCV seeks to help small-scale food entrepreneurs succeed by providing a low-cost, shared-use kitchen facility in order to create business opportunities, employment, and multicultural economic activity throughout Boston’s neighborhoods.

San Francisco – La Cocina

Northern Colorado

University of Idaho Food Technology Center

And a great list from Rutgers University…

Food Product Labeling

How do you get labels made for your products? I spoke with Karen from Food Labels, the largest outsourced provider of food labeling services and learned it’s surprisingly easy and affordable to create nutrition facts panels as well as ingredients and allergen statements.

A full consultation of your food labels throughout your design process all the way up to production, including asking questions, is a great investment if you’re looking to really grow the company — and investing in a big label run. You’d want to make sure your recipe was stable before doing this of course.

Advice from Foodzie Producers

Our “7 Questions” blog series includes a bit of advice from each of the food producers interviewed – from why they started that type of business to food business advice.

Advice on Specific Food Business Types…

Starting an Artisan Meat Business

Starting a Mobile Street Food Business

Marketing Your Food

Selling Food Online with Foodzie – Learn how Foodzie can help you reach new customers who are passionate about discovering well crafted, tasty, and unique foods.

Food Photography Tips – Find resources from expert food bloggers and photographers to make your food jump off the web page

National Association for the Specialty Food Trade – “The preeminent trade association providing growth for your business in the vibrant specialty food industry.” If you’re thinking of starting a food business, you probably know already that the NASFT puts on the well-known Fancy Food Show.

Edible Communities – A wonderful network of local printed and online food publications to which you can contribute articles, advertise, and connect with other local food businesses.

Profiles of Artisan Food Entrepreneurs

Princeton, New Jersey – Simply Nic’s and other women in Princeton, New Jersey who cook in the same commercial kitchen.