I am in the process of doing this. I know I said this before, but I am further along than before.
mhumm38, The first step is to get a food technician to do 2 things for you. One is be present when you make a batch of sauce to turn your recipe into a formula. The second purpose of this guy is to supply you with the nutritional information that is required on the bottle. Calories, fat content, etc.
I already know that I am having it bottled by a company called newlywed foods. Here is the process so far as spelled out by one of their representatives. First thing before anything is an agreement was signed between them and I, which mostly is for my benefit. It is a non-disclosure agreement. This is about as far as I have gotten thus far. After this he is going to come down to the restaurant when I make a batch and take a sample and my recipe, send it to their technicians who will try replicate with a formula, make a sample and get it back to me to make sure it is what I want.
Still working on some details for the rest of it, but some of them are as follows. I will need to design, or have designed, my label. I will have to have them printed up and delivered to them for application to the bottles/jugs that they produce for me. I assume that in this process I will have to register a bar code and have that in the label as well.
Are we having fun yet? I am. I still have not sat down and talked price of producing this stuff with him, as I am sure that can not be established without having the formula. I am also sure that the price will vary based on quantity ordered. First run out I am sure will have to be fairly small which will mean less of a profit margin. In the mean time you will need to have a means of selling it. I figure I will sell some at competitions, some at the restaurant (as well as have gallon sizes for use at the restaurant), and set up an internet site. The last will be a task in itself. You will need to set up the payment methods and do the packageing and mail drop off.
Once you have some of the finished product in hand, you can approach grocery stores and have in mind a price since now you will know what the cost will be if you order a large quantity.
After all of this, the rest is easy. You will have most everything nailed down and adding products to the line should go fairly smooth.
I have stalled in my tracks as my First order of business has been taking up a large chunk of my time.
Well, Jay? Does that sound about right? You are our resident expert.
Good luck to you if you give it a whirl. I will get mine out there some day, but it may take longer than I had planned on, which is alright by me.
