I want to market my mom's salad dressing for sale in grocery stores. How do I go about selling it for her?

Question

Do I need a special license? How do I obtain it?

Answer 1

When FDA approves it here are some tips on getting ur product out there.
U can make flyers or ads or spread the word of mouth, make a business card, choose a good catchy product name and design.
Research grocery stores, the numbers and locations, choose only 1 per neighbourhood to avoid competition, go with private or small ones to start off with as they will be easier to get your product into.
Call each place and make an appointment to show ur product, bring in samples on a nice display, professional looking and clean and simple.
Make an arrangement on a 50-50% deal or something similar, so they take half of the purchase price and u take the other. Print out some forms stating the product name, price and ur info so that u have a written agreement.

Answer 2

since its a food product, you first must go through FDA. and they will require you to have it made in an outside source factory, not from home or a small business.

Otherwise the most you can do is get a patent on the ingredients and levels of each and then sell them by hand online, at trade shows, etc. But once it hits main stream stores and mass public, FDA is all over you.

I do automotive paint and came to realize yrs ago that fingernail polish was the same as auto paint, just 1 extra chemical added. I was going to then offer a custom fingernail polish biz but FDA wanted a billion rules since it was a medical product that touched the flesh.

Anything that touches people or is ate goes through the FDA and is a huge pain. Otherwise a patent, copyright, etc and any other product is on the market.

Plus with a food item you will need an umbrella policy n all to cover the biz due to lawsuits over bad, stale, sick causing product. Cause it will happen.

Answer 3

Remember Paul Newman. He did it. Having spent 32 yrs. in sales of grocery products to whole sellers and retailers I suggest you make up a few batches of the dressing and give it to numerous people you know and see if they think it has potential. Unless it is an extremaly extraordinary product you will have almost no chance of selling in volume. Demand cures all problems. The route I would take is to contact a dressing manufacturer, such as Clorox Co." Hidden Valley Brand", and see if you can get a set down with them and see what they think. Believe me, they are always looking for flavors and ideas. It can be done, but you need to pester them and wear them down

Answer 4

In some states, you may need to register to sell agricultural products.

I'm sure that are specific laws regarding the label, and how to accurately list the ingrediants fo the dressing. Are you going to manufacture it and bottle it, or have someone else do that?