AboutJ. Peter Clark Expertise How various processed foods are made; ways to improve manufacturing; how to make a new food product.
Experience Employment history: Research Engineer, U.S.Agricultural Research Service, Associate Professor Chemical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Director of Research, Continental Baking Company, President, Epstein Process Engineering, Inc., Vice Presdent Technology, Fluor Daniel, Inc., Consultant to the Process Industries
Organizations: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Fellow) Institute of Food Technologists, American Association of Cereal Chemists, American Association of Candy Technologists, American Society of Agricultural Engineers,
Publications: Several Encyclopedias (Kirk and Othmer, Chemical Technology; Food Science, Food Technology and Nutrition; Wiley Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology; Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems); five books, two book chapters; numerous journals.
Education: BSChE Notre Dame PhD University of California, Berkeley
Awards: AIChE Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division Award 1998
Clients: Major food processing and pharamaceutical companies.
Question I was wondering what the first steps would be in bottling and selling our restaurant's greek dressing. Our customers have enjoyed for the last 30 years and they all ask us to sell it. Thank You very much for your time. christos
Answer Christos,
Depending on where you are in the US or elsewhere, there probably is a company that has the mixing and filling equipment to do what you want. One source for the US is the Private Label Manufacturers Association in New York, phone 212-972-3131, email info@plma.com. You need to decide approximate annual quantities (bottles per year), type of bottle (size, glass or plastic), label design (nutritional data, brand, ingredients), and formula (may not be identical to what you do now because it may not be stable for long times, for instance, or it may not use easily available ingredients). Most salad dressings have oil, vinegar and seasonings. Some have emulsifiers, such as gums or egg yolk. The vinegar or lemon juice helps to preserve the dressing, but if you want an emulsion, you may need a special mixer.
The first step, really, is to explore the market and see what is now available, what it sells for, maybe test among your customers to see what sells at different prices. I have seen many restaurants try this with dressings, BBQ sauce, and salsa. Relatively few are successful, sad to say, because in fact a restaurant customer base is too small for most manufacturing, most restaurateurs are not used to food processing, and many kitchen formulas are not designed for mass manufacture.
You could try doing it by hand, on a small scale, without modifying the formula, buying bottles, having labels printed, and selling at check-out. If you are successful, you could get some help in scaling up; if it does not do well, you have not lost much. But be prepared to adjust the formula and to make some compromises if you get larger.
