You have done all of the work to get your new, fresh food or beverage product to market: project R&D is done, packaging selection, branding, and marketing is finalized, and you are ready to go live with production, or maybe you have already started. Things are looking great – your product is being well received by consumers. Now all you have to do is secure retail contracts to grow your brand. So what challenges do you need to consider before pitching your product?
Let’s talk about four challenges for fresh food and beverage product success.
Food Safety and Recall Prevention
You’ve heard it said – “if it’s not safe, it’s not food.” The most important issue to solve is the safety of your product. Another word for fresh is perishable. While fresh is a good thing, it also leaves room for quick product deterioration, and the risk of foodborne bacteria and pathogens. During your R&D process, you likely considered and prepared for food safety issues. Consider ways to guarantee the safety of your product, namely preventative measures to reduce your risk of a product recall after it has gone to market. Make sure you have steps in place to prevent and mitigate any possible food safety failures.
Shelf-Life and Distribution Range
The shelf-life of your product can make or break the deal. With fresh products, especially those with cleaner labels, shelf-life tends to be shorter, which can limit not only the life of the product’s quality and safety, but can also limit your distribution range. They say “time is money” and that is proven with shelf-life. The longer your product lasts on the shelf, the more time it has to be purchased. The longer the shelf-life, the further your product can reach geographically. If you can extend the life of your product, you can scale your business, expand your distribution range, reduce product shrink, and improve your bottom line.
Sustainability Initiatives
Consumers today not only care about fresh products, clean labels and food safety, they care about the impact your product and business has on the environment. Before going to market, see how your business model supports sustainability. Do you have sustainable packaging? Production processes? Are you reducing food waste and environmental toxins? Make sure you know about these issues and show how your company cares and what you are doing to be more sustainable. This matters to both the consumer and the retailer. Sustainability affects everyone.
Product Growth and Industry Partners
Now that you have settled the challenges listed above, you will need to make sure you are prepared for your fresh food or beverage product’s success! As your product gains traction in the market, prepare to outgrow your production capacity. That’s a good challenge! Selecting trusted partners within the cold chain that can support your product growth will be key to the continued success of your brand. Whether it is a contract manufacturer, a cold storage facility, a 3PL, a High Pressure Processing (HPP) service provider – or someone who can manage your entire cold chain – selecting industry partners that are experienced, knowledgeable, and reliable is very important. To find the best match, seek out manufacturing partners with similarly aligned company values: food safety, clean labels, sustainability, etc.
Launching a new fresh food or beverage product can be challenging. It takes creativity and work to develop a unique product, design the brand, source the materials, and to bring it all together and sell your idea to consumers. It is important to consider additional challenges you may face to bring that fresh product across the finish line and onto the grocery shelf. Food safety, shelf-life, sustainability, and product growth are some additional issues to settle prior to pitching your fresh product at the retail level. If you solve these challenges, you will be well on your way to fresh food or beverage product success.
