Top 74 Food Business Ideas with Low Investments

31. Condensed Milk Production

Full cream milk is the only raw material in this business. It is one of the most profitable businesses in the world. Sweetened milk is highly demanded both domestically and internationally.

32. Inventor of Kitchen Gadgets

There have been millions of dollars made with innovative kitchen products.

Sam Farber founded OXO after creating a peeler for his wife Betsey who had arthritis in her hands. His innovative ergonomic design and non-slip grip launched his successful company.

33. Asian Food Shop

Throughout the world, Asian people have become a major part of the population. Many Asian people are food connoisseurs.

Starting an Asian food store could be a potentially profitable business, particularly in the United States.

34. Nut Butter Retail

Make peanut, almond, cashew, macadamia, pistachio, and other nut butters yourself without preservatives and added sugars.

A downside is allergies – you must be careful. Another downside is cost – some nuts are expensive. If you find the right supplier and are careful, it’s a great business.

35. Nutritionist

A healthy and balanced diet is sought by everyone who is health conscious. The role of a nutritionist is to suggest a diet that is tailored to suit the needs of each individual, based on their age, health, and other factors.

Nutritionists are in high demand in metropolitan areas. You must take special training to become a nutritionist.

36. Cooking classes

For those with the ability to teach, cooking classes can be a lucrative business. 

You can bring in new customers by offering cooking classes in your home or rented space to people who want to know how to make tasty, healthy, and good food at home if you’re the kitchen type.

You may find running a cooking class to be an excellent business idea if you are passionate about teaching others how to cook.

According to statistics, food bloggers earn about US $70,000 a year, or $5,088 a month.

Bonus Tip: Here is a step by step guide on how to start a culinary school.

37. Personal chef

Personal chefs are popular with busy professionals who don’t have time to cook their own meals. You can create meals on a weekly basis for your clients to heat up at their convenience.

38. Pizza Delivery

A pizza delivery business’ main focus is choosing a good delivery boy and selecting a menu. Many people, due to their extremely hectic work schedules, will likely have their meals delivered to their homes.

Pizza has become one of the world’s most popular dishes. It is a lucrative and enjoyable way to earn money if you start a pizza delivery business.

39. Biscuit making

Making biscuits is a highly profitable business with high-profit margins. Many people prefer to buy biscuits from their local bakery shop. It is possible to set up an automated biscuit plant or bake biscuits by hand.

40. Breweries and Bars

The combination of food and wine makes for really good value. Most of us will agree that a full belly is one of life’s greatest pleasures, plus drinking wine while eating is an added bonus.

With millennials, hanging out with friends and drinking a few beers has become a weekend tradition.

If you can create a relaxing atmosphere, where people can hang out and have a few drinks, or if you are interested in breweries, then this is a food-related business you can get into.

Pro Tip: Starting a bar brewery? check out how to get a liquor license and what types of bar licenses you need

41. Jam and Jelly Making

It might be your big business idea if you are a jam lover and love to preserve delicious berries and crisp apples. You can operate seasonally or all year round, depending on how much time you have available.

Jam/jelly making also requires very little infrastructure, and soft spread startups face fewer safety hurdles than other food businesses. Sound good?

42. Seafood Selling

Starting a specialty seafood business from home is an excellent and profitable business. You will need to source the products as wholesale purchases and store them in frozen condition.

With a delivery vehicle, you can deliver the products to the customer’s doorstep. In order to succeed in this business, you must develop a product promotion plan.

Bonus Tip: Here is a step by step guide on how to start a seafood business.

43. Coconut Oil Manufacturing

There are many uses for coconut oil, from cooking to detergents to hair oils, as well as for making toilet soap. A food manufacturing business idea requires a lot of capital investment.

A factory must be located in an area where raw materials are easily accessible. If this is acceptable to you, you may want to consider it.

44. Snack vending machines

Make your vending machine stand out by offering healthy, organic, low-calorie, or diabetic-friendly snacks. People get hungry everywhere.

Start your own snack vending machine business. You can install vending machines in hospitals, schools, offices, and malls.

Pro Tip: You need a business plan to start a successful vending machine business, download this free vending machine business plan template to create a winning business plan.

45. Pizza Shop

If you want to start a pizza shop, you can open a franchise store or start your own pizza line. Pizza shops have good margins and require moderate investments.

Decide on a menu and get going. You can also offer meal kits with bases, sauces, and other ingredients to give customers a taste of home-cooked pizza.

46. Bagel Shop

As a result of its popularity in the city of New York, the bagel has become one of the world’s most popular breakfast and lunch foods for both breakfast and lunch.

Bagel shops also offer beverages and side dishes to customers in addition to the bagel itself.

47. Honey processing

You can either establish a manual or automatic honey processing unit to remove wax and other unwanted material from honey.

Honey is considered one of the emerging food processing businesses since many customers prefer it as part of their daily diet.

48. Meal Kits

A meal kit is a food subscription service that provides pre-portioned ingredients and recipe instructions for making homemade, chef-crafted meals.

There is still plenty of room for new brands and niches that remain untapped in the market, despite the fact that they’ve become increasingly popular in the last few years.

You can get inspiration from companies that have a unique focus in the meal kit delivery space, like Thai Direct.

49. Tea Bag Making

The tea bag-making business requires only two major raw material components – tea and paper bags. Tea bags are small, porous sealed bags containing tea leaves, and hot water is used to prepare the beverage called tea.

A moderate investment is necessary to start a tea bag-making business for an aspiring entrepreneur with adequate knowledge of tea leaves.

50. Energy Drink Business

There are billions of dollars being spent on energy drinks, but they leave much to be desired when it comes to health. You can have a slice of this $32 billion market if you create your own natural energy drink.

In the beginning, it may be expensive, yet in the end, it could lead to the biggest payoff.

51. Nutrition Coach

A growing awareness of health creates a demand for nutritionists. As a nutritionist, you will be working as a diet coach to help people live long healthy lives. You require almost no capital to start this business.

52. Aquaponics Farm

Hydroponics is an advanced form of agriculture farming. It is a mechanized way to raise fish and vegetables. The business would be ideal for those who have a backyard and are passionate about farming.

53. Water

You can find many types of water for sale today. The bad news is that you can’t find them all in the same place.

Since people continue to choose high-quality water, running a business solely dedicated to water and water paraphernalia is not that absurd. The industry is expected to be worth $217.2 billion in 2026.

54. Olive Oil Selling

The global production of olive oil has grown from 2.5 million metric tons in 2012/2013 to 3.36 million metric tons in 2019/2020, according to Statista.

You can make good money selling olive oil since the profit margin is quite high. Therefore, the consumption of olive oil is on the rise.

55. Meal Kits

The majority of people are busy and lack the time to cook a complete meal. They would prefer a home-cooked meal over fast food. This can make a subscription-based business model profitable.

Get started with an online meal kit shop to take orders and deliver the food. You could offer regular packages with different menus for recurring orders.

56. Protein Bars

 A five-year CAGR of 5.9 percent is forecast for the protein bars market between 2022 and 2028, from USD 4.64 billion to USD 7.02 billion. However, not all protein bars are created equal.

Take your time and experiment in your home until you find the right recipe and go for it. Taste is the biggest challenge, and if you can overcome it, you’ll succeed in a growing industry.

57. Wedding Cake Selling

There is a lot of creativity involved in this food business. Wedding cakes are very special items. They require a lot of care and dedication to prepare.

Nevertheless, the business provides a lucrative profit margin for the owners. You can learn how to make wedding cakes from books and online tutorials even if you don’t have the skill.

58. Chocolatey Crunch

When it comes to food products and business ideas, chocolate is the go-to. But in order to succeed in this field, you must be a crafty candy maker and choco-lover!

In your quest to explore all your food products business ideas, you came up with the idea of a chocolate business. Good! But first, you need a raw material provider. 

That goes for all businesses, but that is especially true for chocolate businesses.

59. Marinades

Marinades can enhance your recipes just like sauces. Options for marinades include beef, chicken, fish, lamb, and vegetables.

It is possible to create marinades that keep buyers coming back if you know what you are doing in the kitchen and are creative.

60. Hookah Bar Lounge

You can launch a hookah bar lounge in your locality if you have a good funding capacity and a detailed business plan. Hookah bars are cash-intensive but highly profitable.

The most important thing, however, is to do market research in the area you wish to open a hookah bar and find out if there is a demand for such bars.

ProTip: A perfect business plan is essential to start a hookah bar business. You can write your own business plan by following our proven business plan examples pdf.

61. Straight out of the farms

Health-conscious dietitians recommend farmers’ markets. Take advantage of this opportunity. Research the trends before developing a unique name for your food business.

Be a liaison between farm owners and health-conscious eaters. Then, come up with a unique name for the food business. This combination will be welcomed by the health-conscious public. You can count on that!

This unique name for the food business brings together remote sellers and convenience shoppers under one roof. Growers can set up their stalls and gain the visibility they always wanted.

62. Dining Guide Map and App

If you live in your local area or want to visit a tourist destination, create a dining guide – map or app – and publish it.

By distributing your map for free and selling advertisements to featured restaurants, you may be able to make money or you can sell your guide to consumers with discount coupons.

63. Vinegar Making

There are many types of vinegar. There is white vinegar, chili vinegar, rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar, coconut vinegar, etc.

Making vinegar is a simple, low-cost, profitable idea. Fresh homemade vinegar tastes better than store-bought bottled ones.

Fermentation of vinegar takes two steps. You could taste the vinegar and bottle it in batches. You could sell it to restaurants for regular delivery.

64. Shush the Sushi Lovers

There is no doubt that Americans love sushi. Here is your chance to serve the sushi that blows minds and silences critics. Yes, you can do it!

Sushi is such a popular food dish that you can likely break even in just a few days. 

Quit asking yourself, “How to start a small food business at home?”! There is no rocket science involved in starting a home food business.

65. Food Blog

It is a good money-making business if you are a food lover and enjoys exploring new recipes. There are several successful food bloggers who make a good income out of their blogs.

66. Ginger Garlic Paste Making

As the name implies, ginger garlic paste is a ready-to-cook item. The product belongs to the FMCG sector. When stored in the refrigerator, it has a longer shelf life.

Ginger and garlic are both important spices in cooking many foods, including non-vegetarian ones. There is a huge market for the product nowadays.

67. Roasting Coffee Beans

The best food business to start is roasting coffee beans. You came here looking for answers and here they are. Using coffee beans as the basis of your business is a good idea.

By offering freshly roasted coffee beans, you can charge a higher-than-average price without alienating your consumers. Use this advantage to your advantage.

68. Tasty Tortillas

This food business idea stems from satisfying the craving for tasty tortillas of US Latinos. The idea arises from satisfying those cravings. Get started now!

Increasing numbers of tortilla lovers, and foodies in general, assure that your small food business idea will quickly quadruple. With increasing non-Latinos eating tortillas every day, you know your small food business idea is sure to thrive!

69. Subscription Box Snacks

Creating a subscription snack box catering to specific dietary needs is a great way to utilize the opportunity. For example, for diabetic, low calorie, low fat, or vegan diets, you can create a subscription snack box tailored to specific dietary needs like those.

70. Brewpub

This business is essentially a combination of restaurants and microbreweries, so it requires adequate knowledge and experience in microbreweries.

In addition to offering craft beer with various customized tastes and flavors, it also offers its clients on-premises craft beer. A trend of today’s phenomenon is drinking beer with different customized tastes.

71. Bartender Service

You can make money by mixing cocktails as a side hustle if you know how to do it. Or, if you know how to mix cocktails as a profession, you can start a bartender agency in which you can hire bartenders to cater to firms for large events where you earn tips.

72. Vegetables and Fruits

The organic vegetable business has become quite popular due to the growing awareness of healthy eating. 

It may be a good business idea if you own a farm or are able to source fresh farm produce. In order to connect with clients of all ages, mainly the younger generation, technology may be necessary.

73. Snack Store

Explore different flavors of slated snacks from multiple cultures. The salty snack market has seen unprecedented growth in recent years.

A savory snack business would include producing roasted chickpeas, parmesan crisps, sardines, salted peanuts, and so on. These snacks are in high demand, and they’re not going anywhere soon.

74. Flour milling

The bakery industry relies heavily on flour for many items, including bread, croissants, crackers, cookies, cakes, etc.

Additionally, many people are switching to healthier flour options for wheat. Start your own flour milling business and cater to specific flour needs.

Especially today, when the food market is incredibly diverse, you don’t need to invest as much as you did decades ago

ProTip: A business plan will help you get funding to start a food business. For assistance in writing your own business plan, you may download our business plan pdf.