Around here, we often say that if a project isn’t done by July 4th, it probably won’t happen. One of the priorities this winter has been the development of a soon-to-come turkey bratwurst line. I’ll hold you in suspense on the particulars, but tease that we’re featuring Minnesota-inspired flavor collaborations and think they’re all delicious!

Since we’ve put a lot of time toward these new products, I thought I’d pull back the curtain on all that goes into a new product launch.

First, of course, comes a good idea. I’d be lying if I said our best ideas originate in my head. In fact, some of our concepts start from recurring customer requests, or a market gap seen by a retail partner or chef. In the case of the turkey bratwurst, a few of our key retail partners helped us see an opportunity to expand beyond our popular Turkey Rachael into a full lineup.

Next comes the challenge of finding the right partner to make the product. You may already know that there’s a significant shortage of mid-sized meat processors, so finding the right partner can be a scavenger hunt: one that can do what we need, at the right scale and in the right place. Many good ideas have fallen apart for lack of the right processing partner (turkey bacon comes to mind).

Once we’ve found a processing partner, we’re into the fun part: exploring different flavor combinations, tasting samples, tweaking, tasting again, gathering lots of input, and then more tasting until we’ve got the recipe just right. It’s tough work, but somebody has to do it!

Once the recipe and packaging are finalized, we submit our proposed labeling for USDA approval. Meat labels are tightly regulated, which oftentimes requires some back-and-forth to prove we can substantiate everything we promise on the label. Are we really an independent family farm? Is each bratwurst really 3 ounces?

All of this takes time. Lots of time. Along the way, we need to create spec sheets, shoot product photos, talk with our retail partners, generate barcodes and nutritional formulations, and more. There’s a reason the big guys have teams to do this work!

Finally, we get to bring our baby into the world! If you’re already hungry, you’ll have to wait until May, when we anticipate our new turkey bratwurst line will be launched. In the meantime, you have the long and tasty backstory of what goes into bringing a new Ferndale product to market.