1.
Gain Food Safety Expertise—or an Expert
With the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, remarkable talent, great ideas and a passion for great food is not enough to build a successful specialty food business. For entrepreneurs lacking a scientific background and a thorough understanding of the new food safety regulatory landscape, Coburn strongly recommends getting up to speed, which might include hiring outside consultants with expertise in food safety and compliance.
2. Know Your Co-packer
When using a co-packer, entrepreneurs need to familiarize themselves with the co-packer’s food safety protocols. Do they have independent audits? Ask to see the scores. Do they have liability insurance? How frequently do they test? Do they have certificates of analysis for every production run? Coburn suggests personally visiting the facility during production and especially during production of your products.
3. Establish Standards
In today’s world, entrepreneurs need to establish specific standards for their product and its production. Manufacturers and marketers must be intimately familiar and in compliance with regulatory criteria and consumer expectations. We are past the days of taking your grandmother’s recipe and sharing it with the world, Coburn says; we are putting products into commerce and will be held accountable for them.
4. Get Good Legal Advisory
It is essential to have excellent legal advice as part of one’s business plan, she says. Without adequate legal counsel, one can be held personally liable if something goes wrong.
5. Be Transparent
Make sure your business process is transparent. Transparency will immediately highlight problems and therefore ensure product safety; it also creates the kind of consumer confidence that traditional advertising and marketing can never buy.
With the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, remarkable talent, great ideas and a passion for great food is not enough to build a successful specialty food business. For entrepreneurs lacking a scientific background and a thorough understanding of the new food safety regulatory landscape, Coburn strongly recommends getting up to speed, which might include hiring outside consultants with expertise in food safety and compliance.
2. Know Your Co-packer
When using a co-packer, entrepreneurs need to familiarize themselves with the co-packer’s food safety protocols. Do they have independent audits? Ask to see the scores. Do they have liability insurance? How frequently do they test? Do they have certificates of analysis for every production run? Coburn suggests personally visiting the facility during production and especially during production of your products.
3. Establish Standards
In today’s world, entrepreneurs need to establish specific standards for their product and its production. Manufacturers and marketers must be intimately familiar and in compliance with regulatory criteria and consumer expectations. We are past the days of taking your grandmother’s recipe and sharing it with the world, Coburn says; we are putting products into commerce and will be held accountable for them.
4. Get Good Legal Advisory
It is essential to have excellent legal advice as part of one’s business plan, she says. Without adequate legal counsel, one can be held personally liable if something goes wrong.
5. Be Transparent
Make sure your business process is transparent. Transparency will immediately highlight problems and therefore ensure product safety; it also creates the kind of consumer confidence that traditional advertising and marketing can never buy.
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