U of I Center Helping Startup Food Packing Businesses Launch

Business is Humming at Zacca Hummus Thanks to Support from U of I Facility

Janine Zacca Zenner created a steady market for most of her father-in-law’s garbanzo bean crop while simultaneously bringing her mother’s family hummus recipe national fame thanks to a day-long University of Idaho class.

Her Zacca Hummus is now stocked nationwide in hundreds of stores and is the brand of choice for the Greek and Mediterranean restaurant chain Gyro Shack. The popular hummus brand, which exclusively sources garbanzo beans raised on the Palouse at Zenner Family Farms, is a success story of U of I’s Caldwell-based Food Technology Center (FTC).

The center provides training, a commercial kitchen, equipment and continued support to aspiring entrepreneurs who make, market and sell packaged food products. Its goal is for clients to eventually outgrow the university facility and expand production elsewhere, as Zacca Hummus has done.

“The Food Technology Center was instrumental in our success because of their knowledge and expertise in food production,” said Zenner, of Boise. “We would not have had the opportunity to start a business like we have without access to that facility.”

The center’s commercial kitchen occupies about a third of a 7,000-square-foot plant, which was shuttered when the university acquired it in 2000. In addition to the FTC facility, the U of I Caldwell Research and Extension Center also includes office and warehouse spaces for center clients, as well as other businesses, to lease.

Supervisor Cini Baumhoff and Director Josh Bevan comprise a two-person staff running the financially self-supporting center. It’s one of the few labs in the country certified to perform processing on behalf of agricultural chemical manufacturers needing pesticide residue studies to submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Food manufacturers also contract the center to test equipment and production methods.

Currently, the center serves more than 20 clients. New clients take a day-long, $149 course covering the basics of food safety, production and packaging on a commercial scale. They also learn how to use equipment in the commercial kitchen and are granted access to produce their products in the facility at a subsidized rate of $30 per hour. Baumhoff offers guidance and helps clients effectively scale up recipes.

“We want them to make a product they can sell, and prove they can sell, at a price point they can make money at and not lose money at,” Baumhoff said. “There’s not a lot of profit margin in food.”

Some notable brands being produced at the center include Wagner Mustard, Oma and Popie’s Seasoning Sauces and Spice Blends, House Made cocktail syrups and Hummuna Hummus. In 2018, Bevan calculated clients using the kitchen had a $1 million economic impact.

“People like to see products that come from their regional area, and this facility allows people to manufacture products safely and efficiently with expertise and support,” Bevan said.

The Zacca Hummus story began when Zenner’s in-laws mailed boxes of their farm-raised garbanzo beans to her mother, Mimo, who used them to make hummus and was amazed by the creamy texture and nutty flavor. Zenner was inspired to start making her own hummus with her mother’s recipe. It was a hit, and Zenner soon had visions of commercial production.

Though she began as a food-manufacturing neophyte, Zenner brought relevant business experience to the table. She holds bachelor’s degrees in finance and international marketing from Florida International University and she’s a certified professional accountant.

Zenner and her husband Chris, an Idaho farm boy, met in Florida while working for Miami’s Arena Football League team. She was an accountant for the management company that owned the team while Chris was an intern in sports administration. They eventually moved to Idaho’s Treasure Valley so Chris could take a job with the Boise Hawks minor league baseball team.

In 2011, at the urging of her sister-in-law, Chandra Zenner Ford, who is the chief executive officer of U of I Boise, Zenner enrolled in the Food Technology Center’s course. Her initial batches were a rough experience, leaving her covered from head to toe in hummus. Before long, however, Zacca Hummus was a staple at the Boise Farmers Market and soon found its way onto shelves at nine local Albertson’s stores.

Zenner began producing hummus for Gyro Shack in 2017. The following year, she reached an agreement with Gyro Shack’s supplier, Devanco Foods, based in Carol Stream, Illinois, to make and distribute her product. Through the partnership with Devanco, Zacca Hummus increased production to 6,000 pounds per week.

In 2022, Kroger Co. solicited applicants for a competition where food entrepreneurs were invited to pitch their business ideas. From a field of more than 1,600 applicants, Zacca Hummus placed first in the Pacific Northwest and was among 15 products invited to Cincinnati for in-person presentations. After her husband offered a brief history of Zenner Family Farms, Zenner told the judges how the farm’s dried garbanzo beans became the secret ingredient to improve upon an old family recipe.

Zacca Hummus finished among the competition’s top five products, earning placement in an additional 400 Pacific Northwest Kroger stores. The brand continues to grow.

“We started at the Boise Farmers Market with the help of Cini Baumhoff and the U of I Food Technology Center,” Zenner said. “Cini was very knowledgeable on labeling and what it took to get a packaged product out to the stores. Had she not been there to train me and lead me in the right direction, I would not have been able to do it on my own.”