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LabelCalc Nets Substantial Savings for Hancock Gourmet Lobster

Founded in 2000, Hancock Gourmet Lobster is a specialty food company focusing on the production, sales and distribution of all-natural gourmet lobster specialty items. The company is headquartered in Cundy’s Harbor, Maine’s oldest commercial lobstering village. Combining fresh, preservative-free ingredients and abundant local lobster meat with traditional recipes, all products are prepared daily, frozen and shipped to customers by overnight delivery. Hancock Gourmet Lobster’s offerings are available at upscale retail outlets, through many fine catalogs and directly from the company’s website.

Situation

Food manufacturers are required by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prepare labels for their products. For a long time, this process was fraught with difficulties – manufacturers were dependent upon complex, expensive and time-consuming options such as laboratories, CDs and third-party consultants. Until 2006, Hancock Gourmet Lobster was utilizing the services of a consultant to generate nutrition panels. This required the company to prepare and ship food samples, and then wait a few weeks to receive the nutrition analysis and panels. For founder Cal Hancock, the entire procedure was extremely costly, time-consuming and inefficient.

LabelCalc Supplies Value-Added Solution

In June 2006, Hancock decided to sign up with LabelCalc, the only online nutrition analysis tool that instantly generates accurate, up-to-date FDA-compliant nutrition facts panels. She is delighted with the results. “LabelCalc is much more economical and timely for us than our previous system, and it is relatively easy to use,” said Hancock. “I like the convenience of being able to create nutrition labels whenever I want. And it’s much easier for new product development – I can experiment with different ingredients online and create sample analyses.” Hancock also appreciates LabelCalc’s Allergen Alerts feature, which flags potential ingredient allergens to help users comply with the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA). “Our customers sometimes request ingredient information primarily from an allergen standpoint,” she noted.

Hancock Gourmet Lobster enjoys 24-hour access to LabelCalc’s nutrition calculator and FDA facts panel design module. LabelCalc also offers online storage capability, which assures the company that its recipes and panels are completely secure.

Customer Service and Support

Lucy Needham, LabelCalc’s president, prides herself on providing her clients with the most knowledgeable and focused customer service in the industry. In addition to general software support, LabelCalc routinely assists clients with answers to complex regulation and compliance questions. Needham and her team have aided Hancock Gourmet Lobster with issues regarding topics covering everything from yield of ingredients to FDA regulations. “LabelCalc’s customer service has always answered our questions in a timely fashion, and has definitely met our needs,” stated Hancock.

Summary and Conclusion

“Our goal in creating LabelCalc was to offer food manufacturers a convenient, one-stop solution for accurate nutrition analysis,” said Needham. “And we’ve made it very easy for our clients to use without any specialized training, complicated manuals, expensive new software or elaborate computer set-up procedures.”

“LabelCalc has truly made my life easier, and I would recommend it to my colleagues in the food industry,” said Hancock. “I plan to continue using it into the future.”

Customer: Hancock Gourmet Lobster, Cundy’s Harbor, Maine.

The Challenge: Offer Hancock Gourmet Lobster an efficient, economical option for creating nutrition labels.

Executive Summary: Hancock Gourmet Lobster was finding the process of generating nutrition labels through a third-party consultant to be expensive, time-consuming and inefficient. Upon utilizing LabelCalc’s services, the company was able to significantly reduce its time and cost commitment for nutrition analysis.

LabelCalc Features:

  • Online nutrition analysis tool designed to service small-to-medium sized food manufacturers.
  • Clients establish secure user accounts where they can create FDA-compliant food labels and store recipes.
  • Clients can conveniently access their accounts and generate labels from any online computer.
  • Entire process takes about 25 minutes and includes five easy steps – entering ingredients, entering serving size, selecting voluntary nutrient values, selecting a nutrient facts panel, and determining claims and allergens.
Interested in learning more about how LabelCalc works? Visit our product features page to learn even more about what makes LabelCalc unique.
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