patenting or selling food/recipes etc

zig

Hi, im just wondering are there any decent comprehensive articles regarding selling a food product that is quite obvious.
Having read a few different bits on the internet I notice that the main criteria for a patent is that it must be new, novel and not obvious.
Unfortunately what I am doing doesnt really fit the criteria but its still different to anything you can buy, at least the specifics are much different in my opinion.
But I would have said the same for any new sauces, or soups or anything like that (good example being if I had invented reggae reggae sauce I would be coming on and asking the same question).
My point is, are these kind of products all protected , or could anyone make them.
The food I want to make is nothing revolutionary, as a matter of fact if you searched hard enough through google you'd probably find something similar on a recipe sight or whatever, but that said, you cant buy exactly what Id be making either.
Lets take bread for example, perhaps someone made a lovely bread, i.e. just had a decent touch for it and wanted to sell it. Suppose they were very successful and wanted to expand and sell it nation wide. Surely this person wouldnt have solicitors of some bread patent owner down their throat? My idea is on a par with that example.
All my searches on google are just showing up 'how to patent food' etc, but none of this addresses my specific problem.
Any advice or links would be great.
Thanks!!
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AlkalineAcid

What if you just kept your recipe a trade secret?

This might be useful if that's not an option.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4910615_apply-patent-recipe.html

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

I agree with Alkaline, patents can be broken easily which is why food items are difficult to up hold their patents. You can patent the process but it must be an invention which is non-obvious and novel. If someone was to add a little sugar and improve upon your recipe that would be enough to get around it and you might have a long battle to prove it even if they did copy your exact process. Is it really worth 10,000 - 20,000 Euro to patent??

Your better off protecting your idea with good branding and being first to market.

zig

cheers for the tips and links lads. Yea I dont think ill be going down the patenting route, no point really.
Anyway my main worry was me running into problems because someone else might have something similar patented but the more I think about it the more I realise Im jumping way way ahead of myself here anyway. I havent even started selling the product yet.:D