Quick Tips for purchasers and R&D personnel in the food manufacturing industry.

1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a natural, fresh olive fruit juice. The taste profile and color can change significantly depending on the olives used, the harvest time, and many more factors.

To those of you that are new to the bulk ingredient buying world, evaluating and choosing ingredients for your new product can be a bit daunting.  But you're not alone-- small business owners, company founders and young ingredients puchasers have all been in your shoes.  

Making the switch to industrial totes for your bulk oil can be a big change.  Your production facility is going to be no longer "hands on".  A fork lift or a pallet jack is now going to be a vital part of your day.

Learn how to spend less on shipping

1. Always ship a full pallet at a time. Freight shipping is more efficient when the pallet is packed to the max, because a pallet will cost the same (or close to the same price) no matter how much or little you put on that pallet. By shipping a full pallet, you will get the lowest shipping cost per pound.

1. Switch to a larger packaging size. For every next packaging size you switch up to, you save between $0.02-0.05 /lb.
2. Ask your supplier where their volume price breaks happen, and consolidate your orders to meet those volumes. You can save anywhere between $0.02-0.10 /lb by doing this.

If your job is to place orders and plan inventory for your raw ingredients, you’ve got a lot of information to juggle at one time. Your most important job is to make sure that the raw ingredients your company needs for production get there on time, so that you manufacturing can go off as planned, without a hitch.

Here’s 5 best practices to keep in mind when you’re placing orders. These tips will help you save money, will help your oil deliver on time and should make your job as simple as possible.

As a food manufacturer, you probably already know that demand for Non-GMO foods is on the rise in the US. In fact, “Non-GMO” is now the fastest growing store brand claim¹. That’s because consumers are increasingly caring about what they’re putting in their bodies, and they’re calling for change through their grocery stores and legislation.

As a food manufacturer, you should be increasingly aware of this trend, and begin researching whether changing your ingredients to their non-GMO counterpart is a smart move.

If you’re using conventional Soybean or Canola Oil, you could make the switch to Non-GMO Expeller Pressed Canola Oil instead. Here are 5 basic reasons to make the change.

One of the best ways to buy bulk olive oil for less is to change the way that it’s packaged. Packaging can affect your landed price substantially. The standard rule is, the more packaging there is, the more you’ll pay for your bulk ingredient.

If you’re a large manufacturer using a substantial amount of drums or totes, it may be time to consider if moving to a larger storage size is right for your business. The next size up is large in-house storage tank installed in your facility, with deliveries of olive coming in flexitanks or tanker trucks depending on the type of oil. Putting storage tanks into your facility allows you to store the oil in it’s largest bulk form and save as much money as absolutely possible.

If your job is to purchase ingredients for a manufacturing company, we know much of your day revolves around money. Well, money and planning, that is.

It’s every purchasing managers’ job to keep the cost of ingredients down to a reasonable rate so that the business can continue to profit. It’s also your job to make sure these ingredients show up on time, that they can be easily used by production, and that they meet all of the requirements set forth by QA and R&D.

That’s a tough job! You’re responsible for finding lower prices all the time, but you can’t change the ingredients. And as you know: you get what you pay for, and sometimes things just cost what they cost.

Once you've selected the type of oil that you'll need, the next step is to choose your packaging.  

If you're a manufacturer, your selection will be dictated by your production line.  If you're a distributor, you will bring in that packaging that will work best in your customer's kitchen.

We spend a lot of time focusing on the packaging you choose, and for good reason.  Packaging is one of the simplest ways to save money.  In the end, your selection can save you (or cost you) quite a bit.

The first question we get as a bulk oil supplier is... drum roll please... How much does your oil cost?  But of course!  You knew that already right?

Price is one of the biggest factors as manufacturers and distributors compare bulk oil ingredients options.  There's a good reason for this: it's one of the easiest characteristics to compare because it's a quantitative comparison (aka, it's a numbers game).  This type of comparison is a lot easier to make than the qualitative comparison that QA and R&D will have to make (based on quality, taste profiles, etc.) .  

That's why most companies start the sourcing/procurement process by looking at the price and narrowing down their options from there.  Quality and R&D testing becomes a secondary act to help narrow down the options even further and final a final selection (or two or three) that will work well.

If price is a key component for your company, here's a collection of the most popular (and pertinent) bulk olive oil articles we've written, surrounding the topic of price and cost.

Are you looking for bulk olive oil? There are some basics decisions that you’ll have to make before placing your first order.

1. Grades

Choosing the right grade (or blend of grades) of olive oil will be the first step and may include your Product Development or R&D teams. A big part of this step will be doing test production runs with oil samples to make your final decision. If you’ve already selected a grade of olive oil or a blend, give yourself a pat on the back. Keep an open mind when reviewing each of the options though-- you may find that you can choose a different grade that will reduce cost but still meet all of your quality and taste needs.

There are plenty of reasons why you might want to include Extra Virgin Olive Oil in your product’s recipe. But reasons why you might not want to? Let’s review.

1.  It has too much flavor

Olive oil has a delicious flavor to it. It is a fresh squeezed fruit juice, made from olives. And therefore, it tastes like olives (not like that can of black olives that you just opened for taco night; more of a light, fresh green olive aroma… like the smell of fresh cut grass in the summer). Of course, each variety of olives tastes different so some flavors are softer and more delicate than others. But if you take a sip of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, you will taste something.

For those that used Extra Virgin Olive Oil when they first started making their product, that flavor is a vital ingredient. But for those that want to replace a lighter oil like Soybean or Canola with olive oil, it can change the flavor of the finished product just slightly. Your R&D department will agree, that final flavor is a vital factor in your finished product-- it’s that taste that your customers have come to love. If you can’t have the taste of your final product changed by Extra Virgin Olive Oil, consider Refined Olive Oil that has a lighter flavor.