GourmetOrigins is a online marketplace that connects foodies with small independent gourmet food producers across Europe. Food enthusiasts can get rare and hard-to-find artisan foods from several locations through GourmetOrigins, while learning about the geographical and cultural context in which each product was elaborated.

This focus on provenance and the origins of products is one of the key differentiating elements of GourmetOrigins, as this site aims to become a large repository of European local and regional specialties, products that are often produced in very small batches and hard to source outside their areas of production.

Producers can list their products for free on the site and manage and customize their profiles on the site. GourmetOrigins channels orders towards the producer and takes a commission on transactions. Products are always shipped directly from the producer’s facilities and delivered at the customer’s home address. This way producers can boost their online presence reach a new highly segmented public interested in good food with a minimal investment.

Consumers shopping on ‘Gourmet Origins’ benefit from being able to order from multiple small producers through a single online platform with a user-friendly and fresh design. Product range is broad and diverse, as is the European specialty food scene, and products that are singular in some way get special attention. You can get from premium olive oils from very local varieties in Spain, to hand-made British chutneys with unusual flavors…

GourmetOrigins.com has been launched in the United Kingdom and Spain (it is currently available in English and Spanish) but there are plans to expand coverage to other European countries in the near future as well as broadening the product range and keep adding social elements to the site with the goal of making it easier for the users to share their food discovery experiences.