We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cyntha Duran a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Cyntha , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’m originally from South Central Los Angeles and I was fortunate enough to get out of the “Hood” and get a good job that would relocate me to different cities. When I would move to a different city, it was hard for me to find Salvadorian food. For me Salvadorian food is my comfort food, since that is what I grew up eating. I would flyback home to LA to visit my mom, she would always make sure she packed me pupusas or tamales for my flight back. For a few years I had this idea floating around in my head and actually my sister sent me a text the other day from 2011 where I’m telling her that I wanted to start a food business and that I required her help and my little brothers. In 2020 I was visiting my family in CA and I told my family about the idea I had and I said “if this is a stupid idea, I won’t pursue it” as I explained to them what I wanted to do which was to start a food company that focus only on Salvadorian food and they told me that it wasn’t stupid and to follow my dream. The support from my family and significant other is what gave me that push I needed to leave my career and start Xinca Foods.

Cyntha , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My business is called Xinca Foods and I make Salvadorian frozen food. We are the first Salvadorian Frozen food line that exists in the American market and we are Salvi & latina owned. (salvi is a term that is used for a person whose parents are Salvadorian, but the person was born in the US.) Which is what makes us Unique. We are WBENC, MBE and Washington State Minority & Women’s Business Enterprise Certified. Our food line consists of salvadorian traditional dishes and currently what we have in the retail market are pupusas. Pupusas are El Salvador’s most iconic traditional dish, it is made out of corn masa harina (which is naturally gluten free) and the inside contains a vegetarian, vegan or meat filling. One of our most popular filling is Beans and cheese and the way that you would traditionally eat a pupusa is with your hands and no we do not use a fork and knife (a lot of salvadorian people find it insulting to use a fork and knife when eating a pupusa) and the way you eat it is you ripe a piece apart and on top of that piece you add Curtido (pickled cabbage) and non spicy salsa and you just eat it all together and the curtido and salsa give all those savory notes a nice acidic balance. Salvadorian people don’t eat spicy food which is a misconception that is often made about Latin/ Hispanic food. Since Mexican food is the most popular Latin/ Hispanic food known in the U.S so people always assume all Latin/hispanic food is spicy. (Also there are parts in Mexico, where people don’t eat spicy food.)

Xinca is a small group of indigenous people in El Salvador and Guatemala. They have their own language and food and they are nearly extinct.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2011 I was in a terrible car accident. I drove off Malibu Canyon/ Las Virgenes Road. I was on my way to work at 3am. I used to be a barista at Starbucks located in Malibu. I was on a two lane road and all of a sudden there was fog on a small stretch of the road. My front window also got foggy and as my window started to defrost. Once the fog and my window cleared. I noticed I was driving towards the edge of the cliff. This road had a ton of curves and well when I tried to stop. I stepped on my brakes to try to stop and I turned my steering wheel because I was trying to go towards the rock. Well that didn’t work and so I drove off 165 feet off the cliff. I was told if my car would have moved an inch. I would have died, since I would have not survived the fall. That moment when I was driving off, I thought I was going to die. All I could think about was how I didn’t say goodbye to my loved ones. I just relaxed and accepted that I was going to die. Once my car stopped moving, I tried to get out of my car and my door was jammed. I sat in my car and then I saw a small light and it was my phone. I called 911 three times and I remember telling the dispatcher that this was the most complicated call I have ever made. The fire crew couldn’t find me and I told the dispatcher “What will happen if you can’t find me” all she could say “we will find you” I was found by the LA County Fire Air Operations and the Malibu Search and Rescue Team. I could hear them say, I found her. I was taken to the hospital by helicopter. The nurses and doctors were shocked that I didn’t have any serious injuries. They didn’t want to release me from the hospital too quickly. That same day I went to go see my car and the tow truck people were shocked and thought the person in the car was dead. That accident changed the way I see the world and my perspective in life. I decided to take more risks and to do whatever makes me happy. You only have one life to live and we should do things that make us happy even if we are afraid of the outcome.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

When I started my business, I did not know what I was getting myself into. I had some experience working at a coffee shop, so I understood the health and safety aspects of starting a food business. But manufacturing food is a whole different ball game. So I’ve been on a learning curve since I began this venture.

There is limited information about what is needed to become a food manufacturer, and some information is hard to come by. For example, when I started looking for places where I could manufacture my product, I needed guidance about what to look for in a place where I could make my product. Ideally, you would think, “Well, I’m making a food product for human consumption. I can follow the same rules as a restaurant. But, boy was I wrong; manufacturing a product follows different rules. You need to follow all these health and safety rules, and you need to learn about GMPs and how to build your own HACCP plan and doing third-party audits. All of that was new to me, and I had no idea what they were—Then you also need to understand that manufacturers have different licenses than restaurants. Also, making sure your product is FDA compliant and that you are letting the FDA know that you exist, etc. There are so many details that people who start or want to start a CPG business are unaware of. For example, I didn’t know what a co-packer was or how they function. Also, learning how to sell the product and understand how a broker or distributor worked. Then you must know how to price your product correctly. There are so many hidden costs associated with being a manufacturer that consumers or folks interested in starting a CPG brand are unaware of.

I have made many mistakes, but I’ve also been fortunate enough to have good people around me who have helped me through all of this.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.xincafoods.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xincafoods/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xinca-foods-llc/

Image Credits
Konstantine Daskalos John Watkins photography Javi Loyola -Diaz