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For Nick Fragedakis, there’s nothing like seeing a budding food entrepreneur succeed.

“I love the whole David and Goliath story – seeing the small business owner do well,” Fragedakis says. “And here, we do that every day.”

By “here,” Fragedakis means North Carolina State University’s Schaub Hall, where he runs the Entrepreneur Initiative for Food.

The program — EI4F, for short — helps food business owners and prospective entrepreneurs make informed decisions about processing and manufacturing safe, nutritious, value-added foods and beverages.

Part of North Carolina’s Food Business Ecosystem

Along with the NC Food Innovation Lab (NCFIL), EI4F is an important university asset for the state’s food entrepreneurs. EI4F focuses on ensuring food safety for acid, acidified and low moisture foods — salsas, pickles, hot sauces, relishes, chutneys, jams/jellies, syrups and other items produced to have low pH levels.

In addition to working with people interested in producing acidified foods, EI4F also works with those who produce beverages such as teas and juices. “Many fermented foods also come through. We give guidance on fermented foods but do not provide process recommendations on those,” Fragedakis says.

Part of NC State Extension, the program got its start about 30 years ago under the leadership of food safety specialist John Rushing of NC State’s Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences (FBNS). He designed EI4F with the intention of helping entrepreneurs navigate federal food safety regulations.

Today, Fragedakis says, EI4F is a vital part of North Carolina’s effort to grow a robust food economy that adds value to its strong agricultural industry. North Carolina agriculture and agribusiness — food, fiber and forestry — generates over $100 billion annually in value-added income.

Helping Entrepreneurs Meet Regulations

EI4F provides product and process evaluations that allow entrepreneurs to meet local, state and federal regulations. EI4F also offers food production classification, testing, nutrition labeling, and online food safety training with its Acidified Foods Manufacturing School.

In 2023 alone, the EI4F analyzed and provided processing recommendations for over 800 products, generated over 400 nutritional labels and ingredient statements for food products, and trained over 2,000 people through its Acidified Foods Manufacturing School. Right now, over 500 people from around the world are enrolled in the online course.

The EI4F doesn’t offer product development services, but Fragedakis refers those who need those services to NCFIL.

“If someone comes to us with an idea but doesn’t know how to formulate it or if they need upscaling services, we will direct them toward NCFIL,”  Fragedakis says. “It’s a great resource to have in North Carolina, and I’m really glad they have the capabilities they have.”

Fragedakis’ Extensive Experience + Expertise

Fragedakis became EI4F’s program director and acidified foods process authority seven years ago, but he has an even longer history with the program, one that dates to his days as an undergraduate at NC State.

A former gym manager, Fragedakis came to the university with an interest in nutrition. Classes with food microbiologist Fletcher Arritt turned his focus to food safety and biology, which in turn led him to EI4F. As an undergraduate and master’s student, he worked with entrepreneurs by testing the shelf stability of food samples submitted to EI4F.

After earning his master’s degree, Fragedakis went on to work for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ food and drug protection division, then took a job as an investigator with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Arizona.

While working for FDA, he took specialized training through NC State and ended up landing the EI4F director’s position when it became available in 2017. Now, Fragedakis balances studies toward a doctorate in food science with his busy day job.

Providing Wide-Ranging Information and Answers

“Annually, thousands of people contact us for help,” he says. “Every day we are answering emails and phone calls from clients who need help navigating food regulations and what kind of testing services need to be done.”

Many times, the regulations can seem vague or are up to interpretation, Fragedakis says, so much of his work involves answering entrepreneurs’ questions about them.

“There’s a  lot of doubt and frustration that can come from trying to understand the regulations,” Fragedakis says. “Other challenges include getting loans and understanding liability.”

To make the process easier, EI4F provides a website, that’s chock-full of resources, including a compilation of federal and state resources for small businesses, a page of links to FDA regulations and a list of where a food entrepreneur can turn to for services and supplies needed to bring their product to market.

As Fragedakis says, “It’s not an easy industry to get into. There are lots of challenges that the small business owner has to overcome. The whole goal of EI4F is to make some of that easier and to help them along that path.

“We are just a phone call (919-513-2090) or email away.”