Selling home-made produce

[Mrs Jackson]

Mr J and I are looking at ways to raise a little bit of cash for Christmas and we're considering doing a market stall selling home-made chutneys, chilli sauces, etc. Does anyone know if there are any regulations covering this, for example do we need our kitchen to be checked by environmental health or anything like that? Any help would be most appreciated!

Mrs J

[Snadger]

You may need to possess a food higene certificate to prepare it and take out Public Liability Insurance?

Having said that the WI's been doing it for years without any comeback!

[Mrs Jackson]

Thanks Snadger, Mr J has his food hygiene certificate so that's a good start!

Mrs J

[pigletwillie]

Proper labeling is a must, dates, contents batch number etc. For help with that, just buy a jar of something from someone else and all the requisite info should be on the jar.

[amandaandherveg]

Before you can get started you need to give the folks at your local Environmental Health Dept a call to arrange a visit from one of their staff. During their visit they will inspect your kitchen and will point out any items that need attention.

Different councils/authorities vary in requirements somewhat, but as a rule of thumb a dishwasher is required, laundry should not be done in the kitchen but in a seperate room, ie Utility Room. Tiles and grouting should be intact and clean, bacterial hand cleaner should be available along with fire extinguisher/blanket, First Aid Kit, fridge thermometer. Basic Food Hygiene Certificate required along with permission granted from the council. When you are ready you would then contact the Environmental Health Officer again to arrange a return visit where he/she can re-assess the kitchen and advise if it has passed or not.

As others have mentioned, full labelling would then be required on all items sold.

[Mrs Jackson]

Ah, in that case we're probably stuffed then. No dishwasher and the washing machine is in the kitchen (although no laundry is done in there as it's broken!). I'll get Mr J to phone up and double check anyway as it was his idea in the first place. Thanks for your help!

Mrs J

[amandaandherveg]

Ah, in that case we're probably stuffed then. No dishwasher and the washing machine is in the kitchen (although no laundry is done in there as it's broken!). I'll get Mr J to phone up and double check anyway as it was his idea in the first place. Thanks for your help!

Mrs J

It's got to be worth a phonecall Mrs J, different authorities sometimes have different rules. Good luck.

[BarleySugar]

I remember a while back looking into such things because I was interested in making decorated cakes from home. As I have cats, even thought they have no access to the kitchen area, I was told I wouldn't be able to go ahead. I would like to know what happens about pubs with dogs who sit behind the bar

[di]

Doesn't it depend on where & how much you sell?
I thought that if you were selling as a one off that you didn't need certificates...ie at a Boot sale.
(i may...and more than likely am,wrong,so check it out.)

[Snadger]

How about flogging preserves on eBay or a website? I'm sure that a lot who do (and Womens Institute stalls) just go for it!

[Mrs Jackson]

Just wanted to update you all and say thanks for all your help. We got environmental health checked and passed with flying colours and we've had a little market stall going 3 days a week since before Christmas. We're not currently selling any home-made preserves as we need to go through extra checks for those and haven't had time, but we're stocking a range of chilli-related products from different UK companies as well as our own brand of chilli flakes. It's been a bit nerve-wracking but it got us through Christmas at least!

Mrs J

[OllieMartin]

Personally I'd do it anyway. You just have to take the risk that if you do manage to poison someone you'll be up the proverbial creek.
If you really want to get technical ,you'll probably also have to change your mortgage as most specify that you cannot use your residence as a place of work. I could be wrong though.

Sort of takes the fun out of the whole thing all this H&S doesn't it?

[Polly Fouracre]

I think it would be very hard to poison someone with chutney!

[Snadger]

I think it would be very hard to poison someone with chutney!

You obviously haven't tasted mine...........thats after scraping the penecillin off the top that is!!!!

[Mrs Jackson]

You have to be very very careful with anything that has chilli in it due to the risk of botulism, if it was just standard preserves we'd be ok I think. I really need to come up with some recipes soon so we can make a start on it. Mortgage isn't a problem. This weekend's project is making ristras though! Not made them before so it'll be interesting to see how they turn out.

Mrs J