LEDUC, Alta. – As a business development specialist, Kerry Engel sees plenty of people who want to know how they can turn their great new food idea into the next sliced bread.
“From working with people I saw where people needed assistance.”
Engel knew that food inventors need a matchmaker between them and Alberta Agriculture’s experts.
“The services our department has to offer weren’t always known in rural Alberta.”
That’s when Engel created Taste of Success.
The bait that gets the new developers hooked is knowing they’ll have a sensory test done on their food. But once in the program, the developers realize a sensory test is only a small part of getting their food to market. Food brokers, food scientists, packaging experts and marketing specialists are all key components in the long journey to getting their product from the kitchen to the grocery store.
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“If you tell people they’ll meet a food broker they’re not that enthusiastic, but after they meet they realize the importance,” Engel said.
The food developers were at a day-long session at the Food Processing Development Centre in Leduc to learn another step in getting their product to market.
The centre is a pilot plant and product development facility to help producers scale-up their home-made recipe for commercial production.
This is the second year for the Taste of Success program. Entrants go through a pre-screening process. Ten finalists are selected whom a panel feels are at the right stage to market their product further.
“There were some products we thought were a neat idea, but needed work on product development. Others were simply premature.
“A lot of people don’t realize what a complicated process it is,” Engel said.
