Blue Ridge Food Ventures
OVERVIEW OF BLUE RIDGE FOOD VENTURES
Blue Ridge Food Ventures is an 11,000 sq. ft. shared-use kitchen incubator and natural products manufacturing facility that offers support in product development, guidance through the maze of regulations governing safe production of food products and dietary supplements, advice on packaging and label design, and much more.
We're here to help people who dream--of getting their artisan food products to market, of running a baking or catering business, or even operating their own hot dog cart! We also help individuals and small businesses that want to make natural products and herbal dietary supplements, and get them into bottles and tubes and onto store shelves.
Watch this UNC-TV segment on Blue Ridge Food Ventures.
ANNOUNCING THE WINNER OF THE BIG TASTY!
Gourmet doughnuts, anyone? From a field of 58 entries, Vortex Doughnuts took the grand prize with our competition to find the best food business idea in NC. Get the tasty scoop here!
WINTER SUN FARMS CSA
.JPG) Blue Ridge Food Ventures proudly offers Winter Sun Farms—a CSA (community supported agriculture) program that provides members with sustainably grown frozen fruits and vegetables, fresh greens, honey and more from Western North Carolina's finest farmers.
Once a month from December through March, members receive an assortment of diced, sliced or chopped vegetables, scrumptious berries, vegetable purees ready to become instant soups or healthy dips. CLICK HERE to learn more.
Read a commentary in Mountain Xpress by one of our members on why he and his family subscribe to Winter Sun Farms.
NATURAL PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING FACILITY
Our Natural Products Manufacturing Facility is a current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP)-compliant facility that allows individuals and small businesses to grind a variety of herb and plant materials, prepare herbal extracts and bottle, label and seal their products. Support services from the Natural Products Laboratory at the BioBusiness Center helps clients meet relevant regulatory guidelines. Find out more here.
Appointments to visit Blue Ridge Food Ventures are given to prospective food or natural products producers only. After you have studied the website and begun your business planning, please contact us by email with the completed questionnaire (see below). Due to the volume of client appointments, it usally takes about two weeks to set up a meeting.
Initial Tour and Consultation Fee $60 - Includes facility tour & overview of services offered: guidance on product development, regulatory issues and packaging. If you become a BRFV user, this applies as your orientation and application fee.
To request an appointment, please fill in our questionnaire.
We are always looking for interns to work with our programs ranging from the retail and e-commerce Holiday Red Box Program to Winter Sun Farms business management, logistics tracking, processing and delivery. Or maybe you want experience in marketing the Natural Products Manufacturing Facility all over the Southeast US? Click here for more information on our internship positions.
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Directions
Driving directions from I-40 west bound or east bound: Take Exit 44. At the traffic light at the end of the exit ramp, turn right (south on 19/23). Go to the fourth traffic light and turn left on Sand Hill Road. Go to the second entrance on the left and turn into the campus. The Haynes Conference Center will be on your right and Blue Ridge Food Ventures in the Incubator Building on your left.
Blue Ridge Food Ventures
Testimonial
AdvantageWest and Blue Ridge Food Ventures enabled me to turn my idea for a business into a reality. You rock!
Leslie Suber
Owner
Sadie’s Caribbean Fish Cakes
Testimonial
Using Blue Ridge Food Ventures, I was able to move quickly to get my award-winning product from testing to full production in just a year.
Ricardo Fernandez
Owner
Chef Ricardo's Authentic Appalachian Tomato Sauces
Mary Lou Surgi
, Executive Director
Blue Ridge Food Ventures
1461 Sand Hill Road
Candler, NC 28715
ph. 828-348-0128
fx. 828-348-0486
Email Mary Lou Surgi
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