Food companies in San Francisco: 148 food makers with staff, 580 registered locations and how to find them

This page is for people looking for San Francisco food companies to buy from, work for, partner with or sell to: retailers and restaurants sourcing local products, job seekers, distributors and B2B suppliers. "Food companies" here means food manufacturers, the businesses that make food products; restaurants and grocers are separate industries.

San Francisco's food makers in Census data

County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 311 (food manufacturing), San Francisco County, California:

The Census Bureau doesn't publish the classes above 99 employees for the county; the total less the published classes leaves 2 establishments with 100 or more. Grouped, that's 120 with 1 to 19 employees, 26 with 20 to 99 and 2 with 100 or more.

From the County Business Patterns 2023 county file. The dairy employee count was published but flagged as high-noise: the noise the Census Bureau adds for confidentiality changed it by 5% or more.

Beverages are a separate code (NAICS 312) and aren't included: the county has 39 beverage manufacturing establishments with 537 employees. Across the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro, food manufacturing has 587 establishments and 16,449 employees, so the city holds a quarter of the region's food makers but 12% of its jobs. Most of the region's larger plants are outside the city: the metro has 35 establishments with 100 to 499 employees.

County Business Patterns counts establishments with paid employees, not companies, and leaves out the self-employed, which matters in a sector full of one-person bakeries and cottage producers.

The city's own registry shows more

San Francisco's Registered Business Locations data, published by the city on DataSF and updated on 29 October 2026, lists every business location registered with the Treasurer and Tax Collector, with a self-reported NAICS code. Filtering for open locations in the city with a food manufacturing code gives 580:

The same data list 94 Tier A and 31 Tier B cottage food operations, permits whose descriptions distinguish direct sales (Tier A) from indirect sales (Tier B). The registry is the best free list of names: download it, filter the NAICS column for codes starting 311, and you have each business's name and address. Codes are self-reported, so check a few by hand.

Finding and vetting a San Francisco food maker

1. Start with the registry above, or with SFMade's manufacturers directory for members across San Francisco, San Jose and the East Bay.
2. Ask what they're permitted to make and where. A cottage food permit and a commercial kitchen or plant are permitted for different things, so ask which the supplier holds and whether it covers sales to businesses like yours.
3. Ask about FDA registration if they sell across state lines. Facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food for US consumption must register with FDA and renew every other year, between October and December of even-numbered years. The list isn't public: federal law exempts it from Freedom of Information Act disclosure, so you have to ask the supplier.
4. Check capacity against your volume. With 120 of 148 establishments under 20 employees, a large first order can swamp a small maker.

There are no publicly traded food manufacturers headquartered in San Francisco County in SEC records, so local makers' financials aren't public; ask for references.

Selling to San Francisco food companies

At this size, the owner usually buys, and buys for problems: packaging that holds up in distribution, a co-packer when the kitchen is full, a distributor that takes small brands, food safety plans, and equipment. The 26 establishments with 20 to 99 employees are where an operations or production manager appears.

Illustrative example. The company, prices and results are invented; the counts are from Census and city data.

Fog City Packaging (fogcitypackaging.example) designs and supplies retail packaging for small food brands. It targets the city's 84 food manufacturing establishments with 5 to 49 employees, matched to names from the city registry, plus registered commercial bakeries and chocolate makers without staff. At about 100 businesses, with the founder at each, a 10% conversion is 10 clients; at $12,000 a year in packaging orders each, that's $120,000, with room to grow as brands move into regional retail. Its triggers are a new retail listing or a move into a larger kitchen. Bebop can find food makers matching a description like this and research each one; how to sell to small businesses covers the approach.

Subject: Packaging for [product] in [new retailer]

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on getting [product] into [retailer]. Retail shelves are hard on packaging that worked at farmers markets and in your own shop.

We design and supply packaging for San Francisco food makers in runs small enough for a growing brand, and we can turn a sample around in two weeks.

Could I send a few examples from bakeries and chocolate makers your size?

[Your name]

Where to look

Next step: compare San Francisco with a much larger food manufacturing center in food companies in Chicago, or see the biggest food companies nationally in the largest food companies.