How to Start a Food Company in Georgia

Georgia is an ideal location to start a food company. There are a large number of food manufacturers and equipment suppliers in this state, and to cash in on these sources you must know how to start a food company in Georgia. You can have the best recipes and even have plans about what you are going to sell, but you need to familiar with Georgia’s food guidelines before starting your business.

Georgia has more than 50,000 farms that produce a large variety of food products, so food processors have an abundance of raw material. Georgia produces 23 million pounds of chicken per day, which is 15% of chicken produced in America. The nation’s leading food processors such as Coca-cola and Kellogg’s are in this state.

The first thing for how to start a food company in Georgia is to know where you will prepare your food. There are laws and regulations for food companies that prohibit them selling food produced in the home, so you will need to lease or rent a commercial, or acquire space suitable for preparing food products.

Since there are different permits for different foods, you must obtain the permits required for your food products including handling and food safety manager permits. Your local Board of Health handles the required paperwork. The fees for the permits are different for all counties.

Obtain an outlet for selling your food, whether it is a restaurant, café or store or wholesale or retailers. Purchasing your ingredients from small local farmers will save you money. Equipment, furnishings and other necessities should also be purchased wholesale from local retailers instead of having them shipped from a long distance.

You will easily find highly skilled and productive workers in Georgia for a food company. According to the Bureau of Labor the wages for food processing workers is lower than other parts of the country. Georgia has numerous technical colleges that guarantee that food processors have qualified workers.

Facilities for distribution nationwide are present, as Savannah is the fastest growing container port in America, which moves around 6 million tons of freight weekly. Georgia’s food processors are supported by many research and technology groups, with topnotch food industry development procedures, making Georgia a leader in food processing. We hope these guidelines will prove beneficial for you to know how to start a food company in Georgia.