In this issue

Specialty Food Networking Community to Launch October 18th

New FDA Label Changes - What you need to know!

Whence Goeth the UPC Symbol?

Information from the "hood" often the hardest to capture?

Do you know any cost effective label suppliers?

Specialty Food Networking Community to Launch October 18th

How often do you find yourself saying: “I wish I had a better way to connect with buyers in the specialty food industry?”

Specialty Food Resource is going to take the industry by storm. You will have the power to “get known” and connect with your market.

Amazingly, you can do all of this from the comfort of your home or business, in about 10 minutes per day! Specialty Food Resource is using online marketing techniques that will help you become findable to your market.

But, as with anything that you join, you have to actively participate. (We suggest you spend 10 minutes per day, just 3 times per week).

When you become involved in the Specialty Food Resource community, you start by listing your business in an online directory, so that people can find you. The online directory is no ordinary directory. You will have the ability to add photos, your message, video if you have one, and you will be ‘Blogging’. You’ve probably never heard of blogging before. Don’t worry. We’ll teach you and give you the strategies you need to unleash the power of the directory.

For our pre-launch special, we are offering the directory at a trial price of $1 /month. And, we are going to give this discount to you for 2 months! That should give you the opportunity to test out and work the system. After 2 months, (and only if you choose to continue being part of the community), the price is $9.95/month. Our goal is to have an affordable connection mechanism in place to help you promote your business.

Join the Specialty Food Resource community today.

Find out about our pre-launch special

Dear Rita,

We are very pleased with the wonderful reception you have given to our first edition of Food Entrepreneur eZine.

Now, it's your turn. Please send us your contributions - these may be in the form of brief articles or just factoids about your challenges and accomplishments in specialty food marketing. For example, you could comment on your experience with co-packers, or with a certain co-packer. You may do this anonymously if you wish. Sort of a "co-packer review." Or, ingredient suppliers, or packaging and labeling material vendors, etc. In fact, our web site and specialty food directory will be grouping specialty food firms into the following categories: Specialty food processors, brokers, distributors, retailers, vendor/suppliers, and miscellaneous (agencies, publications, consumers, etc.)

Or, let us know the real joy you find in creating and marketing your products. Share with your fellow specialty food entrepreneurs. Let us all know what you think.

To our specialty food colleagues who have been impacted by Hurricane Katrina, please know that we are keeping you in our prayers and we have every hope that you will be sustained with abiding courage and hope during this sad and very difficult time.

Thank you and great profits to you!

Stephen F. Hall
Author, "From Kitchen to Market"

·  New FDA Label Changes - What you need to know!

Any food product labeled on or after Jan. 1, 2006, must comply with The FDA's Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. Allergens must be listed in plain English: Milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts and soybeans. Foods products that are produced and labeled prior to this date, and are part of a firm's inventory, may be distributed in interstate commerce after Jan. 1 until the product inventory is exhausted.

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·  Whence Goeth the UPC Symbol?

In order for you to print U.P.C. Bar Code Symbols, your company must first become a member of the Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC). When you become a member, your company will be assigned an identification number for your company's use (company prefix). You will need this number to create your own U.P.C. symbols.

Membership with the Uniform Code Council provides the ability to place a U.P.C. Bar Code Symbol on your product and distribute it into the marketplace. The Membership Application will ask you about your company and to provide the following facts:

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·  Information from the "hood" often the hardest to capture?

By Mina Williams

Is all specialty food marketing local? Telephones, instant messaging, the Internet have all combined to enable us to have more immediate information at our fingertips than ever before. It is not uncommon for the specialty food processor, broker, retailer or distributor to be well versed on the business climate in Western Europe or the Far East. However, when it comes to regional business-to- business information, expressly in the food channels, many are hard pressed to be well versed on current activity or trends.

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·  Do you know any cost effective label suppliers?

Note from Food Entrepreneur Mona Garcia:

Hi Stephen:
I'd like to tell you how tremendously helpful your book has been. I'm just getting started in the business and your book has given me a very realistic perspective.

One thing you might want to consider including in your next edition is some very specific information/resources on labels and packaging for those who are really just beginning - i.e. cooking out of their own kitchen and selling directly to local retailers. I spent countless hours sourcing low-cost options for my labels and packaging. Many people starting out don't have money to hire a graphic designer and purchase thousands of containers and custom labels. Once you have a good label and appropriate packaging you're ready to go (assuming, of course that you have a good product). I think this is one of the biggest obstacles for people getting started and this info. would be very helpful in your book.

Even though I make what I sell in my own residential kitchen, I produce products that look every bit as professional, and as commercially produced, as many of the nationally distributed specialty foods. The reasons for this are my labels and packaging.

• Do you have any suggestions for where I might be able to have an in expensive analysis done for a nutrition label?
• Do any of you have ideas and/or comments about nutritional analysis?
• What are your experiences?
• Can you please give names?

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·  The 4th edition of From Kitchen to Market is now available!

·  Build and Manage your own website!