Vince Ficca has over 40 years of technical experience in various branches of the food industry. He is one of the world’s foremost experts where flavors intersect with TTB and alcohol beverages. Mr. Ficca is the named inventor on a number of patents related to cream liqueur, wine products, and flavors.
Education
Vince earned a BS in Food Science, and an MBA. He went on to complete coursework in corporate finance and accounting (New York University), and the Ph.D. coursework in Food Science (Rutgers University).
Companies
Vince began his career at Kraft General Foods, as a Food Scientist, where he worked on products such as Jell-O. A few years later Vince moved to Frito-Lay (PepsiCo) where he helped develop Doritos and Cheetos.
In the 1970s Vince moved over to the alcohol beverage industry, as Manager (New Business Development, Technical) at Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company in Milwaukee. There he advanced the development of low alcohol beers and flavored malt beverages. Vince also helped Schlitz establish the Geyser Peak Winery in Sonoma County, California.
For the next 25 years, Vince held positions of increasing responsibility at Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc., rising to Director of Research & Development. Mr. Ficca supervised and developed many of the products and processing systems used by Seagram during this time; many of these systems are used by the beverage alcohol industry to this day. These innovations involved coordination among food science, ATF/TTB regulations, and FDA regulations to make high quality, innovative alcohol beverage products. For brands such as Captain Morgan and Seagram RTDs, Vince helped improve quality and shelf life, and bring down costs. More recently, Vince worked at Diageo as Director of Technical Services, and he remains closely affiliated with Beverage Resources LLC.
Consulting
As a Technical Consultant at Lehrman Beverage Law, Vince assists many companies, mainly in the following areas:
- TTB flavor approvals
- preparing TTB formulas for malt beverages, wine specialties, and distilled spirits products, and helping get them approved
- 5010 tax credits
- technical reviews and audits
- helping to select appropriate flavors and improve beverage formulations
