Wow- I can’t believe I did it- but I wrote my first book! It’s called The Food Business Tool Kit For Entrepreneurs-How to Research, Develop and Produce a New Food Product. It took me exactly four months from start to finish, it cost me $6500 dollars to write, $4,842 of which was raised via Kickstarter from family, friends and anonymous interested parties who just felt like supporting me. It took me over 1000 hours to write- and now its done! And it can’t be unwritten- it can only be sold-so I hope.
But.. WHAT is this book really all about??
Buy me!
My book is not for the food scientist- it is written for the regular people – the ones who wake up one day from their non-food industry job (whatever non food people do.. finance, real estate, marketing, sales etc.) and realize that they have a dream of making the next healthy food product with a clean label and sustainable ingredients that is good for you, good for the environment and good for other countries and the world. They rush into their kitchen (after a trip to whole foods to buy gluten free grains and nut powders) and start cooking and mixing and showing their friends and putting together business plans and then….. the really complicated questions come in- the stuff that only the Food Scientists know about .. like:
- How do I Get this Product Made?
- How do I find a Manufacturer
- Do I need to do a shelf life study?
- What’s a HACCP plan?
- Do I really need to get the FDA involved in all this?
- Can I patent my product?
- Can I tell people my product will save the world?
- Can my product be shelf stable like a twinkie but without all the bad stuff that the twinkies have?
They start searching around online- and realize that – it is not so easy to find the answers to their questions- so they try to hire people, but they are not even sure whom to hire. Should they hire a nutritionist, a chemist, engineer? A Chef?? Why is it so hard to figure out these answers they wonder..
The reason why- is because—believe it or not- start up companies are not easy to work with because they usually don’t have any money, they don’t understand anything about the food industry and they are just not worth the time needed by co packers, ingredient suppliers and manufacturers. They would much rather someone like Kraft or Nestle come knocking on their door – not Joe’s Jumpin’ Trail Mix from Sonoma County.
And so my book TEACHES the layperson what they need to know to get started. I provide links to the important trade shows- and I explain the basics of food safety and shelf stability and what is HACCP all about. The reader will leave with a solid understanding of the rules surrounding their product category so when they do leave a voicemail for that co-packer – they may even get a call back- if they look and sound like they know what they are doing.
So if you are food scientist reading this post- then this book is not for you-unless you were asleep during food microbiology or didn’t attend Better Processing Schoo-but I bet you know someone who has a food dream but none of the inside exclusive food science knowledge to make it happen. Tell them about my book!
Now you are thinking– how can I trust Rachel Zemser? AKA the Intrepid Culinologist? Does she really know her stuff?
Read my biography- I have 3 degrees, 18 years experience, many publications and lots of recommendations on Linked In. And if you think the book is not helpful- I will give you a refund.
