Consulting
Jerky and meat stick consulting, end to end
For new brands building from scratch and existing producers leveling up. Five core pillars run through every stage — formulation, process, thermal processing, packaging, and product troubleshooting — on site or remote. Based in Thomson, Georgia, serving North America — the US, Canada, and Mexico. Zach travels to you.
Beef stick formulation, process, thermal processing, packaging, and troubleshooting
Formulation
Products and specs that have to run. What has to be true in the meat, what the process will allow, what the label can honestly say.
Process
Grind, mix, stuff or slice, marinate, dry — salt, time, temperature, and why the line fails. Method that repeats.
Thermal processing
Cook, smoke, dry, cool — the heat path that has to be true for the product you claimed. Schedules and validation stay in the engagement, not on the marketing site.
Packaging
Barrier, format, and shelf reality for a dried product — what it needs to survive the package and the shelf.
Images are representative illustrations, not photos of 6R projects or client products.
Core pillar · for existing producers
Product troubleshooting for meat sticks and jerky
A product that used to run fine starts drifting. A new item never quite comes out right. You’ve tried the obvious fixes. This is where an experienced set of eyes helps: we work back through the formula, the raw material, the process, and the package with you to look for what changed and why.
Kinds of problems we help diagnose:
- Texture — too soft, too tough, crumbly, or mushy
- Bind — product that won’t hold together
- Casing issues — splitting, wrinkling, poor peel or adhesion
- Color — fading, uneven, or not what you expect
- Flavor drift over time or between lots
- Batch-to-batch inconsistency
- Yield coming in lower than it should
- Appearance — fat-out, surface defects, uneven drying
- Salting out — salt bloom or white residue on the surface
- Shelf-life concerns
Every product and plant is different, so issues are handled case by case. Zach can work on site or remotely.
Co-packer and co-manufacturing support
No plant? No problem. Zach takes clients all the way through the co-manufacturing process and can act as your operations agent with the co-man.
Pilot runs and line setup
Zach runs pilot runs, sets up lines on site, and advises remotely when that’s what fits.
Have a plant and need an operating system? We can help with that too. Widget BOS — a Business Operating System — is designed to help bring your plant’s operations, records, and day-to-day running into one place. Learn about Widget BOS
Proof · what 6R has done
Real industry experience, not a slide deck.
Zach has spent more than 15 years in meat science and food technology — on formulations, processes, and products that had to run in real plants and hold up on a real shelf. Client work stays confidential, so you won’t see names or formulas here.
Concept to commercial product in about 90 days.
6R has taken product concepts to a commercial product in about 90 days — the absolute minimum, not typical. A lot of variables go into it: your product, your plant or co-man, and the work itself.
How we work together
How working with a meat stick consultant works
No pitch decks and no pressure. Just a straight conversation about your product.
You email
Tell Zach what you’re making and what’s in the way.
Zach replies
He reads it himself and writes back.
We talk
A phone call to understand your product, your goals, and your situation.
We scope it
Together we decide which stages you need. Every project is scoped individually.
We do the work
At the bench, in pilot runs, on your line, or with your co-man — on site or remote.
What we don’t do
- Named case studies or “we did this for [company].”
- Publish formulas or confidential processes that belong in someone else’s plant.
- Promise a result, a shelf life, or a launch date.
- Imply a facility we haven’t claimed.