Tricia Flock with Flock Food Solutions does an experimental medicine Popsicles at his home in Slippery Rock on Tuesday.

SLIPPERY ROCK — When Joe Flock was laid off from Heinz during a downsizing in 2013 after 25 years as a food scientist and research and development principal, he and his wife, Tricia, decided to start their own food product development consulting business, Flock Food Solutions.

The Flocks moved from their home in Pittsburgh to a farm near the borough in August that year and within a month had their new company up and running.

Strategic partners in the business, Joe consults with clients and Tricia uses her previous office management experience to manage and market Flock Food Solutions.

While working with one of their first clients, Marisa Teiner, nutritionist and founder and CEO of “Feel Better Pops,” on the development of an all-natural probiotic Popsicle for children, Flock Food helped to develop and commercialize the product.

“She had called us because she had developed a product for her young son who was very sick. The only thing he wanted when he was sick was a Popsicle or a frozen fruit bar. So rather than giving him frozen sugar water, she thought she could make him a healthier Popsicle that would also make him feel better,” Tricia said. “She realized she should make this for everybody.”

Together with Feel Better Pops, director of operations and partner Tracy Nelson, the new product was developed in a commercial kitchen in West Chester, Chester County, in three flavors.

The Popsicle, which contains a patented probiotic through a partnership with Ganeden, a probiotic ingredient manufacturer headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, was put on the market in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia last July.

The company is now looking for an investor to further market it.

To learn more about Flock Food Solutions, read Sunday’s Butler Eagle.