Bootleg Food Co was born from the spirit of rebellion.

Our Mission is simple - to create the highest quality products using the best ingredients that Aotearoa New Zealand has to offer.

We have never taken no for an answer and from day one have done things our own way, even when told it was impossible.

Our commitment to the spirit of rebellion is reflected in everything we do, from the ingredients we use, to our unique, state of the art manufacturing processes, to our packaging - we do everything our way.

We have honed the ancient practice of air drying over several years and countless failures and in true Bootleggers form have rattled a few cages along the way!

Our story started back in 2018 when a fateful trip to the heart of the USA led our founder, Ash ,to the discovery of a thriving craft Jerky and meat snack scene, where ancient, artisanal methods met boundless innovation and an exciting world of flavour.

But back in the land of the long white cloud, jerky was leaving a bad taste in our mouths. The sugar-laden, artificially flavoured options on shelves just weren’t cutting it, and quality jerky was near impossible to come by. Kiwis like us were hungry for an accessible, premium jerky that was a cut above the rest, so we set out to make it. This was the birth of Bootleg Jerky Co.

From a small garage, with a rad little team, we honed the lost art of jerky making as it should be. Small-batch, honest ingredients, and no BS. 

We spent every night packing orders and every day drying jerky while wrestling a 1 year old and a global pandemic. Weekends were spent at markets and tastings until we finally got a break and got our jerky into a local liquor outlet.

In 2021 we set up our own industrial sized factory which allowed us to supply over 250 stores in NZ. We quickly outgrew this space and in 2022 we moved into our new, MUCH larger, export grade facility. With the added capacity, we started tinkering and drying products for others, which got us thinking, we should do our own dried products and thats where The Drying Room was born.

Today, our products are found in most good stores around NZ and have just started our next mission of opening up our products to punters all around the world.