In fact, this road is to take the trademark brand route. You can't protect this snack itself, so you should make a brand in the shortest time, or once it is launched, such as Quanjude's roast duck, and there are many places like whose elbow and whose melon seeds. They also encountered the same problem as you now when they first operated. Patenting is actually a monopoly, so it is difficult to take the brand route. The first impression instilled in consumers is their own brand. After a long time, when people mention this kind of thing, they immediately think that your family's is authentic. Now people's tastes have reached the point of tracing back to the source, as small as a bunch of candied haws, which brand they want, because he thinks it is the root.
please make your own decision. I hope I can help you.