Fresh Industries

About The Line List

The Line List is a public directory of verified U.S. food and beverage manufacturers, plus a Tuesday weekly for CPG founders and brand ops. The directory is the public utility. The weekly points at it. Process guides stay in Learn. They are not the front door.

How a plant gets on a page

The plant publishes the process on its own site. We fetch that page, quote what it prints, and link it. Directory cards, LinkedIn copy, and extension copacker lists are not used as plant facts, only as a lead to the plant's own site.

If the site does not say the process, the plant is omitted from that process table. Closed plants, non-U.S. plants, and equipment OEMs are out. This is not a complete census of every U.S. vessel or kettle.

The public directory is the plants already named on the process pages. The spreadsheet in data/copackers.csv is a public-list lead sheet, not a live verified directory. Unverified CSV rows are not published as company cards.

How we treat unpublished fields

If a cell is blank on the plant's site, it is marked unpublished. We do not invent a plant, phone, email, minimum order, cert, city, or search volume to fill it. Unpublished is not small. Throughput (kg/hour, vessel size) is not a minimum order.

Re-verify the URL on the company page before you send a deposit. Plant copy moves.

The weekly

The Line List, Tuesday morning, America/Chicago. 400–700 words. Audience: CPG brand operators. Each issue: one mismatch (process, minimum order, allergen, or cert); who will actually run it (named plants, public facts); one process rule; one thing that changed; a reply ask. We do not email plants unless asked.

Sponsorship: one slot later (co-packer, packaging converter, or 3PL). We do not publish a rate. Featured slots on this site do not affect organic ranking.

What to have ready

Founders who outgrow a cottage, home, or commercial kitchen often hit MOQ, setup, and first-run cash walls, and worry a kitchen recipe will not survive scale-up. Get clarity before you outreach.

1. Business and marketing clarity: goals, product description, and a realistic order size.
2. Written specs: ingredients preferably by weight, pack and label notes, finished-product quality.
3. Volume and forecast honesty: target run size and rough scale-up goals.
4. Ask early about audits or certs buyers may need (HACCP / Preventive Controls, third-party audits, USDA for meat/poultry, Kosher / Halal / organic / gluten-free / non-GMO when relevant). There is no universal required-cert list.
5. Packaging format and who buys materials.
6. Timeline: when you need product; expect trials and revisions.
7. Capital plus storage and distribution after the run.
8. NDA posture: be ready to discuss confidentiality before sharing the full recipe.

There is no universal MOQ or required-cert checklist that every plant demands. Who files acidified Forms FDA 2541 / 2541e (brand vs plant) depends on who is the commercial processor of record. Leave that to counsel and the plant.

This directory is not FDA Food Facility Registration. FFR data are not a public plant list.

1. [S1] Process, pack, and published floor still come from the plant's own site, not from a generic checklist.
2. [S2] Filing ownership for acidified foods is a commercial-processor question, not a directory field we invent.

Request an intro

If a plant in the directory matches your process, pack, and published floor, we can introduce you. Bring the prep checklist above. You pick the plant. We introduce you. No commission. An intro is not a guarantee they will take the SKU.

Open a company page and use Request an intro there. We will review before we make an intro. We will not email a plant until you name one and ask.