Jose Luis Herrera and Elias Rangel started El Secreto Salsa thanks in part to the helps of the Small Business Development Center. The salsa is now available at stores throughout East Idaho.

Jose Luis Herrera and Elias Rangel started El Secreto Salsa thanks in part to the helps of the Small Business Development Center. The salsa is now available at stores throughout East Idaho.

Jose Luis Herrera and Elias Rangel started El Secreto Salsa thanks in part to the helps of the Small Business Development Center. The salsa is now available at stores throughout East Idaho.

Jose Luis Herrera and Elias Rangel started El Secreto Salsa thanks in part to the helps of the Small Business Development Center. The salsa is now available at stores throughout East Idaho.

Has a friend ever made something so good that people ask, “Why don’t you sell that?” Many food businesses start this way, but very few make the journey to grocery store shelves.

Jose Luis Herrera and Elias Rangel’s journey started in an overgrown garden, and their El Secreto Salsa is on its way to a supermarket near you.

Herrera and Rangel have been friends since 2009 when they met working together in Oregon. As luck would have it, both transferred to Pocatello. When Rangel arrived, he put in a large garden, and one day, after a particularly big harvest, the two contemplated what to do with all the produce. They decided to make salsa.

Both men have been long-time home cooks, and friends and family were so impressed with the salsa that they encouraged the two to bottle and sell it.

“We were excited about the possibilities, but we didn’t know where to start,” Herrera said.

After developing four salsa recipes, a friend referred them to the Small Business Development Center in 2019.

The El Secreto team met with Claudia Allen at the Small Business Development Center. Allen is fluent in Spanish, so the two progressed quickly on their business plan.

“It made things a lot easier to have a business consultant who could work in Spanish,” Herrera said.

Allen introduced Herrera and Rangel to Idaho State University officials to secure a commercial kitchen at the College of Technology. She connected them to the Health Department to learn what licenses and certifications they needed, and she went to all meetings to help with translation. Making food for public consumption safe is a complex process. With Allen’s help, they managed to do all of their certifications in just over a year and finance all the needed equipment themselves.

Herrera advises other food businesses to work with the right people.

“The SBDC got us to the people who helped us with the technical parts of production,” he said

To make the salsa ready for grocery store shelves, there are several processes that have to be completed. For example, each recipe had to be sent to a food lab in Utah for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. This testing makes sure pH levels, temperatures and sterilization practices make the food shelf-stable and safe.

To keep up with demand, Herrera and Rangel rent the ISU College of Technology commercial kitchen to make the salsa twice a month. They both still work full-time, and they make all of their salsa on the weekends, working up to 12-hour days on Saturday and Sunday. In 12 hours, they produce 564 jars of salsa in four different flavors.

Although Herrera and Rangel have already had offers to purchase the recipes, they want to keep and grow the business. They have four additional flavors in the works with a focus on milder appetites. El Secreto Salsa is now available around Southeast Idaho. Look for it at Nel’s Bi-Lo Market and Del Monte Meats in Pocatello, Union Market and La Aguililla Michoacan in Idaho Falls, El Torito in Burley and Mi Pueblo in Twin Falls. They also have a distributor who covers Victor, Idaho, and Jackson, Wyoming. For online sales, visit elsecretosalsa.com.

During the interview for this article, Herrera wanted to make sure he thanked everyone who had helped: the SBDC, Southeastern Idaho Public Health, Michael at ISU Workforce Training and the food lab in Utah.

“You can’t do this alone, and we never forget the people who helped us,” he said.

The Small Business Development Center can help your food business get out of the kitchen and on to grocery store shelves, too. El Secreto is out!

Ann Swanson is the regional director of the Small Business Development Center at Idaho State University's College of Business at 208-282-4402 or swanann@isu.edu. The SBDC is taxpayer funded to provide no cost consulting and low-cost training to any small business.

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