business Sourcing Ingredients

[Bandidas]

Hey y’all!

So I have a couple questions about sourcing ingredients before I start going legit. Before that though, here’s what I’ve been up to while testing my recipes..

I have 5 flavors, made a bunch of test batches, collected feedback, tweaked recipes over and over, made a final small batch of each, and gave them to coworkers, friends, etc. My product feels final but now I need to start getting licenses and permits and stuff. There’s one thing that been confusing me a little bit though. When I’m looking at applications for permits, licenses, and to sell at farmers markets and stuff, they ask for a list of ingredients and where they come from. Here are my questions about that:

1. I made all my test batches with stuff I got from my local Safeway (grocery chain in Northern California) and Wal-Mart. Do I list Safeway or Wal-Mart as the source of the ingredient or the farm or distributor that the ingredient is from? For example, I got a clamshell container of Carolina reapers from Safeway. Their distributor is Melissa’s Produce. Would I list Safeway or Melissa’s Produce as the source?

2. I do want better sources when I go legit. Do I need to use a service like Produce Express for all of my ingredients? Or can I work directly with some farmers for ingredients or just commit to one grocery store for ingredients?

3. Once I have a regular source for ingredients, do most commercial kitchens offer space to store them or do I need to line up delivery days with cook days?

4. I’m moving to Hyattsville, Maryland soon and don’t know anything about the area. Does anybody have any recommendations on where to source Carolina reapers and ghost peppers year round in that area? Or should I just stock up and freeze them when they’re in season?

I am very new to all of this so please don’t insult me for not knowing much. My goal is to learn in order to operate as legitimately and safely as possible.

 

[salsalady]

Greetings, Bandidas!
These are good questions, it sounds like you are working thru the process to get your sauces out there.

The questions about sourcing are mostly to make sure your ingredients are coming from reputable sources. Listing as "local grocery store" and " xxproducexx from local farms when in season" usually works. They cant expect you to buy an ingredient only from Safeway when walmart has the identical item on sale.

If you say you get fresh milk from a guy with a cooler on the side if the road....yea, red flag...

For the reapers, i would list "Melissa's brand thru local retail grocery store". Melissas is available at many retail store.

3. Each commercial or shared use kitchen is different. One I used had dry storage shelves and walk in cooler shelves available to rent on a monthly basis in addition to whatever kitchen time used.

4. I would guess the superhot availability would be pretty seasonal in MD. If you have appropriate freezer space available, order in bulk when in season, even from growers outside your area. Wash, trim, cut open to check for bad spots or dark seeds, freeze in ziploc or vacpac if you have one of those machines. A kitchen may have one.

To make it even easier- wash and trim then run thru a food processor and freeze in bags in the amount needed for a batch. One bag, one batch.

If you dont have freezer space consider dehydrating the chiles. Dried chiles or powders work very well in sauces. But if you do go with dried chiles or powder, consider buying them from commercially available places like Firehouse Flavors. https://www.firehousepantrystore.com/reaperpepperpowder.html

It is kind of a 'calling card' for a business to say "we grow all our own produce". But it is a hell of an attempt to try to grow it all, preserve everything, make the sauce, sell the sauce.....
Since you are already buying chiles, the less time it takes to process the raw ingredients, the more time you can spend making and selling.

one caveat would be if the pepper you use is not readily available thru normal produce companies. A friend of mine contracted with a large farm in eastern washington for a large quantity of peppers they needed. When harvest time, they went to the farm, helped picking, then took the chiles to the copacker who did the sauce run. I think it ended up being too much for all that work and that sauce is no longer available. (we really miss that sauce...)

Good luck, have fun. Let us know what you come up with or if you have more questions as you go.
Salsalady

 

[The Hot Pepper]

You can also source pepper mash in bulk from various sources which can help keep a recipe consistent since they are made when the pepper is at peak ripeness. This could also be a backup measure.

Pepper Mash :: Carolina Reaper for sale

Discover and purchase our Carolina Reaper for sale here. Our traditional, all natural fermentation process transforms this aromatic pepper mash.

www.magicplantshop.com

Louisiana Pepper Exchange Industrial | Approach

www.pepperexchange.com

 

[Bandidas]

Greetings, Bandidas!
These are good questions, it sounds like you are working thru the process to get your sauces out there.

The questions about sourcing are mostly to make sure your ingredients are coming from reputable sources. Listing as "local grocery store" and " xxproducexx from local farms when in season" usually works. They cant expect you to buy an ingredient only from Safeway when walmart has the identical item on sale.

If you say you get fresh milk from a guy with a cooler on the side if the road....yea, red flag...

For the reapers, i would list "Melissa's brand thru local retail grocery store". Melissas is available at many retail store.

3. Each commercial or shared use kitchen is different. One I used had dry storage shelves and walk in cooler shelves available to rent on a monthly basis in addition to whatever kitchen time used.

4. I would guess the superhot availability would be pretty seasonal in MD. If you have appropriate freezer space available, order in bulk when in season, even from growers outside your area. Wash, trim, cut open to check for bad spots or dark seeds, freeze in ziploc or vacpac if you have one of those machines. A kitchen may have one.

To make it even easier- wash and trim then run thru a food processor and freeze in bags in the amount needed for a batch. One bag, one batch.

If you dont have freezer space consider dehydrating the chiles. Dried chiles or powders work very well in sauces. But if you do go with dried chiles or powder, consider buying them from commercially available places like Firehouse Flavors. https://www.firehousepantrystore.com/reaperpepperpowder.html

It is kind of a 'calling card' for a business to say "we grow all our own produce". But it is a hell of an attempt to try to grow it all, preserve everything, make the sauce, sell the sauce.....
Since you are already buying chiles, the less time it takes to process the raw ingredients, the more time you can spend making and selling.

one caveat would be if the pepper you use is not readily available thru normal produce companies. A friend of mine contracted with a large farm in eastern washington for a large quantity of peppers they needed. When harvest time, they went to the farm, helped picking, then took the chiles to the copacker who did the sauce run. I think it ended up being too much for all that work and that sauce is no longer available. (we really miss that sauce...)

Good luck, have fun. Let us know what you come up with or if you have more questions as you go.
Salsalady

Thank you so much! This is great info. I’m really excited to get started

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Cool logo!