February 21 , 2005
“MANY CONSIDERATIONS TO STARTING A COMMERCIAL FOOD BUSINESS”
Farmers and agri-entrepreneurs often consider adding value to fruits and vegetables by selling processed food products. Apples make great apple jelly, peaches make wonderful fried-peach pies and strawberries make the best preserves. However, when raw farm commodities are processed and converted into food products for sale to the public, a significant number of considerations should be made and regulations followed. Developing a successful commercial food business takes much more than just having a delicious recipe or a top-notch field of produce.
The UT Center for Profitable Agriculture has developed a publication titled “Adding Value to Tennessee Agriculture Through Commercial Food-Processing Enterprises.” This is UT Extension publication PB1710. The publication documents some of the essential concepts and principles for completely evaluating all phases and aspects of a legal, value-added food enterprise. The publication is available from County Extension Offices across the state and from the Center’s web site at <http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/pbfiles/pb1710.pdf>. The publication contains 58 pages of information on planning, starting and operating a value-added food enterprise.
All food products made for sale in Tennessee are subject to regulatory oversight of some type. In addition to a proper evaluation of regulatory issues, a solid business plan for a new food product should appropriately address construction, marketing, product development and budgeting issues. All of these issues are discussed in detail in the publication.
These issues are important to the success of a commercial food business and they have overlapping concerns which make it difficult to address any one without addressing parts of another. It is important to address all of these issues and to understand the uniqueness of how the issues are related.
All of the educational resources developed by the Center are available on the Center’s website at http://cpa.utk.edu.
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Contact: Rob Holland
Center for Profitable Agriculture
University of Tennessee Extension
931-486-2777
cpa@utk.edu
http://cpa@utk.edu
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