MMFEC FAQs
What is Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center?
MMFEC is a food business incubator in Ronan, MT. We assist food businesses in their development and expansion through a food manufacturing facility, a commercial kitchen, and technical assistance in food safety and manufacturing. Since starting in 2001, we’ve worked with over 160 food businesses such as; Silk Road Spice, Mustard Seed Sauce Company, Tipus Chai, Fat Robin Orchard, Orchard at the Flathead Lake, Western Montana Growers Cooperative, Triple Divide Seed Coop and many more.
Can I hire your staff to help me with manufacturing my food product?
Yes! You’ll need to let us know in advance so we can schedule staff assistance.
What is manufacturing infrastructure?
A manufacturing infrastructure is all the pieces required for a manufacturer to process and package their food product for sale in retail or wholesale food markets. We require all facility users to be licensed for food manufacturing and carry $2,000,000 in liability insurance.
What is a commercial facility?
A commercial facility is a licensed facility for preparing, manufacturing, and selling food. Our facility is FDA inspected, USDA-meat inspected, certified USDA-organic and operates under an SQF Fundamentals Food Safety Program.
How many square feet is your kitchen?
Our facility is for large-scale manufacturing with over 13,000 square feet of production space for food prep and cooking, dry filling, fresh chop/dice of vegetables, and meat processing.
Do I get my own space?
Our facility is shared use and operates under scheduled client usage through our facility calendar. When a client schedules usage they have sole use of the “activity area” they scheduled. All clients undergo an initial orientation to the facility before manufacturing their products.
What does it mean that you are USDA-Meat Inspected?
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspects and regulates the sale of all meat products across state lines. Our facility provides oversight and USDA inspection to clients who produce and sell products with meat.
What are your hours?
Our facility is open 24/7/365 and is available to clients who have key access. Our facility operating hours with staff is 8 am-4:30 pm
Do you clean for me?
Our staff takes care of our food safety program cleaning schedules and equipment maintenance in our facility. Members are responsible for pre and post operation cleaning and sanitation.
What equipment do you have?
We have full scale manufacturing and labeling equipment. Check out our full list of available equipment.
Do I need to provide my own equipment?
Only if you need something really specialized. We have an inventory of small processing equipment available for use. We take care of all the standard commercial equipment
We even have more specialized equipment like Robocoups, vacuum pack machines, automated labeler, piston fillers- double and singe, weigh filler, and band sealers.
Where are you located?
We’re located at 407 Main Street Ronan, Montana
What type of businesses do you work with?
We work with food and beverage businesses at all stages. Many people contact us when they are figuring out their business concept.
I don’t have a business yet. Will you help me brainstorm?
We love working with early-stage businesses and would be happy to help. There’s nothing better than talking food business.
Do you co-pack products?
We do co-pack for our established clients on a negotiated basis.