Ann Molyn / Golden, CO

 

Flavor of Scale

When food entrepreneurs want to bring an idea to market, one of their biggest hurdles is scaling what may be a family recipe to a shelf-ready product. Enter Scale Food Labs, a company that helps brands of all sizes strategize, develop, and manufacture their products.

Ann Molyn and her husband have the perfect mix of education and experience to run Scale Food Labs, which is based in Golden, Colorado. Like their clients, they have an entrepreneurial spirit. Both also have degrees from the Culinary Institute of America, along with degrees and experience in food science, food business management, and consumer packaged goods. “We kind of just put our yin and yang together,” Ann says. “There was a huge white space in the market for a vertically integrated, soup-to-nuts solution.”

For small-batch start-ups, Scale Foods Labs can handle every stage of the journey, from inception to production. Established industry leaders can take advantage of the flexible partnership model to jump in at any point for help with product upgrades, regulatory compliance or packaging redesign. Ann says Scale Foods Labs’ team of food scientists and chefs fine tune products from the ground up. “We prioritize consumer insights and feedback, ensuring that every product resonates with its intended audience,” the website reads.

Scale Food Labs works with Fortune 100 and 500 companies but, Ann says, prides itself on helping small makers with no experience in food manufacturing. “A big challenge is finding partners that will work with you when you’re small,” she says. “That’s where our niche is.”

Jam-Packed Flavor

The founder of Profanity Jams in California is a typical small customer. Ann says Mary (last name withheld) had a garden full of habaneros and started making jams at home for family and friends. “They were loving this idea of having this sweet with this heat and being able to utilize this produce,” Ann says. “That kitchen dream became a business idea.”

The company released its original line of jams in early 2024, followed by a tropical line in November. That line includes Passion Fruit Habanero Jam featuring The Perfect Purée Passion Fruit. Mary says on her website that the company name comes from her affinity for salty language and the heat that builds after the first bite of habanero jam.

Passion Fruit Habanero Jam combines sweet-tart passion fruit purée with habanero and aji peppers for a sweet and spicy jam that goes perfectly with cheese, fish, and chicken dishes.

“We actually use [The Perfect Purée] in a lot of jams we produce,” Ann says. “We’re in conversation right now with another jam that is wanting to use The Perfect Purée. It’s very popular in the jam industry right now.”

User Tip: Not All Ingredients Are Created Equal

Ann says The Perfect Purée’s flawless consistency helps small makers maintain flavor integrity while scaling to thousands of packaged units.

On its website, Scale Food Labs states, “When sourcing ingredients, remember that natural ingredients like spices, vegetables, and fruits can vary widely in quality, depending on the supplier and processing methods . . . To make sure you’re choosing ingredients that can scale without compromising quality, request samples from multiple suppliers. Testing these variations early on will help you lock in consistent flavor and shelf life for your final product, ensuring a smoother transition to larger production runs.”

Ann says The Perfect Purée’s consistency makes scalability more possible — to a point. “At 100,000 units, it might not make sense, but at 5,000 [units] it’s a good bridge.”

Ann says Scale Food Labs can conduct strategy sessions, R&D, and consumer testing for any food product. “We get a lot of requests for all types of products, products that could be featured at farmers’ markets, trade shows, and national retailers. We have a wide range and can do research and development on any product under the sun, including animal products and hemp-based products.”

Along with Passion Fruit, Scale Food Labs has used Pomegranate, Kiwi, and Blueberry in jams and gummies. “We had this jam come to us, and they used whole kiwis that had to be skinned and mashed up, and that just wasn’t going to scalable,” Ann says. “We are CIA grads, and honestly, The Perfect Purée is something we’ve always known and used. We’ve had incredible feedback on it. It’s the number-one fruit purée to go to if you want quality and premium.”