Maine's Good Clean Food Kitchen Announces New Quick And Healthy Dinners

Maine's Good Clean Food (www.goodcleanfood.com) has secured its Series A round of funding of close to $1 million, company President Kurt Shisler announced today. This round leverages the innovative public-private investment opportunity the State of Maine provides to encourage economic development, he noted.

The news comes on the heels of the company's all-natural simmer sauces for seafood - Creole, Mediterranean and Scandinavian Dill - being picked up by a growing number of high-profile markets from Maine down to Kentucky. The company's fresh simmer sauces for dinner, available in the fresh seafood sections of Whole Foods and Hannaford markets, are truly unique because of their taste and convenience. There are no other similar products on the retail food market today. "We started Good Clean Food to help busy people make quality, home-cooked meals quickly and easily," said Shisler. "That model is catching on with folks, and that speaks volumes."

The Small Enterprise Growth Fund of Maine (SEGF) led Good Clean Food's recent funding round, which included a small group of seasoned investors and four of Shisler's Harvard Business School friends. Interestingly, two of Shisler's investors first enjoyed his made-from-scratch sauces during their first year of business school together more than twenty years ago, when the idea for his simmer sauces first presented itself to Shisler.

"Our funding through these important Maine programs, combined with support from individual investors, enables us to take the next step forward in building our successful company," Shisler said, "We'll now be able to develop new product lines, increase distribution, and open an expanded kitchen and production facility in Maine. In turn, we believe that we'll give back to the state in terms of the additional jobs and revenue we'll generate."

What makes Good Clean Food so different?
"Our sauces provide busy families with the ability to enjoy healthy, savory meals together - without spending hours shopping, prepping and working at the stove," noted Rachel Ambrose, Director of Marketing for Good Clean Food. "Dinner preparation takes only 15 minutes from start to finish using our nutritious sauces. Just add fresh seafood or chicken to Good Clean Food sauces, simmer for 10 minutes, and the entire meal is ready."

All Good Clean Food sauces are low-fat and low-sodium, and contain no additives, no antibiotics and no GMOs. "These aren't run-of-the-mill sauces. Our sauces are filled with great ingredients like made-from-scratch, slow-cooked chicken stock, fresh shiitake mushrooms, shallots, leeks and capers from the Mediterranean Island of Pantelleria," Ambrose added. "What really distinguishes our sauces is that rather than having what are often rushed fast-food dinners, folks now can actually unwind and savor their meals, and have the time to reconnect with each other at the table together. This is great whether families are gathering at mealtime fifteen minutes after returning from soccer, singles are inviting friends over for tasty dinners, or retired folks are enjoying healthy, clean meals they make themselves at home."

Raves from Customers and Food Press:
Since their formal launch in May 2007, Good Clean Food dinner sauces have been earning favorable reviews from a growing customer base, as well as from an enthusiastic press corps. "Wow! [These sauces] make great meals for busy adults, and are 'kid-friendly' as well," wrote Jill Epstein, Publisher/Editor of Boston's Where to Eat. Good Clean Food's simmer sauces for seafood were also recently named an "Editor's Pick" by Taste of the Seacoast magazine, and quickly earned coverage in food press including Yankee Food Service and Maine's The Forecaster. Numerous food bl