Sustainable Business Entrepreneurs Take Note: A Niche in Need

According to a survey published by Prepared Foods (January, 2002), sourcing organic food ingredients is the most time intensive part of the entire product development process. Is there an entrepreneur that would like to make the process easier?

The survey looks at which ingredients will become more or less important to companies’ products in the next two years – natural and organic ingredients are at the top of the list, along with ethnic flavors, soy protein and antioxidants.

“There is not an abundance of organic ingredient manufacturers in the field, which made it a challenge to search for them,” says Jerry Santo, director of corporate purchasing, Eatem Foods, a manufacturer of organic food bases.

Santo adds that value-added or further processed organic ingredients are needed in the food industry. “Many of them are simply not available because this is such new territory. The ‘organic whole food’ segment is growing in volume and variety. But to develop organic products, we must complete the circle — starting with fresh organic food, adding basic organic flavor systems/processing aids and ending with organic convenience products. More organic value-added ingredients would make work a lot easier for developers of organic products and also speed up their output.”

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Written in cooperation with The Organic Newsline, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner.