Northeast Center for Food Entrepreneurship

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Every once in awhile I come across a site that is so helpful I don't even want to pull anything down for a request, I just want the business owner to go there directly. This is one of them. While I have used it to pull off a piece of information, I think it is a resource food entrepreneurs should be familiar with. The Northeast Center for Food Entrepreneurship at the New York State Food Venture Center is a wonderful resource for food product manufacturers. It is a concise site but with very practical information.

For instance, the listing of Small Co-packers and Commercial Kitchens is a good place to start for those looking to get started and includes packers of Kosher and gluten-free products.

They offer a page on developing a business plan for the specialty food marketer as well as a brief guide to getting a product to market; a list of trade group links and agencies; a flowchart of sorts describing the process of product development and information on required product analyses for particular foods.

They produce an electronic newsletter with industry news and entrepreneur profiles. Cornell Extension is helpful in many areas but this is a favourite. And of course they offer their advisors with expertise in all stages of product development.

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