Registered bood business from home.

scubadog

Well-Known Member
I am considering registering as a food business so that I can sell some of my prepared meat to family/friends and some work collegeues ect.

I have read the FSA guidelines and the best practice guidelines and I am happy with the requirments.
The only thing that I am concerned about is the need for planning permission, business rates and the need to inform my mortgage company that I am operating a business from home.

Has any one else crossed these hurdles?
 
yes youll need to do all that plus insurance and public liability and probably planning opermisson as a change of use for turning your demestic kitchen in to an indutrail one
 
In the process at the moment, as you will only be supplying family, friends and colleagues ;) ;) you will be ok just getting your facilities up to spec.

Facilities required are a separate handwash sink to larder sink, wipe clean walls and ceiling, HACCP plan and traceability and obviously approval from your local authority
 
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Its very unlikely you will need planning permission, you will need what they call a 'certificate of lawfulness' from the council, then your normal inspection, then the difficult part, advising your current insurer, they will probably say 'not covered and won't cover' so ring the NFU, lastly its very unlikely you will attract business rates, but that decision will be down to you to argue out with the council
Cheers
Richard
 
It is also very likelly that your EHO will insist on an intermediate food hygiene certificate, also you will need to have in place disposal of hazardous waste.HACCP's,Public liability Insurance for a food business.Wash down regime,refrigeration records,waste water control,PPE etc,etc, etc..
Are you sure you want to open this can of worms?

PS: I believe that if you are under 40 sq metres then you do not need planning.
 
I am considering registering as a food business so that I can sell some of my prepared meat to family/friends and some work collegeues ect.

I have read the FSA guidelines and the best practice guidelines and I am happy with the requirments.
The only thing that I am concerned about is the need for planning permission, business rates and the need to inform my mortgage company that I am operating a business from home.

Has any one else crossed these hurdles?

I am a registered food business from home.
However there are numerous exemptions under the primary producer and hunter regulations

speak to you local authority and explain EXACTLY what you intend to do.
mine were very helpful
 
I have spoken to EHO, planning department and the council tax/ business tax people, my house insurance and my mortgage company.
All seems good so far!

As some point out under the trained hunter exemption a lot of the above comments does not apply!

Yes I will have to do HACCP, PPE and recording carcass movements though we already do this without really thinking about it.

HACCPs are easy enough - FSA even provide templates to use and a nice book to record everything in.
PPE - again just common sense, no need to do a written H&S audit as I am a one man band.
 
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Had the council food hygiene officer around last week for exactly this - want to be able to sell excess venison to friends and family and didn't want to get tripped up by legal issues (I am not planning to sell to public)
if flipping carcasses through your property then i think the hunter exemption is all you need, but if you are doing any butchering then you are a food business and should be registered as such.

He gave me a 5* food hygiene rating (which is 2 better than my local kebab shop) with the following set up (not all necessary, but this is what I have), and will forward me the official notice once I have lodged by DSC1 cert with him
- dedicated room with cieling spots, so well lit
- wipe cleanable walls (used Biosan paint, but a white satin would probably do)
- wipe cleanable floor (varnish on top of wooden floor boards (B&Q laminate)
- bacto detsan for cleaning floors / walls
- steel butchers table & donnington steel tilting cradle
- 6' kitchen larder fridge (can hang carcass, clean out, and then put shelves back in and store butchered cuts in there pending vacuum wrapping
- vacuum packer machine for venison (apparently there are new food hygiene regs that mean that you cannot use a vacuum machine for both raw meat and anything else, so needs to be dedicated for venison, or only for kitched stuff)
- knives all get soaked in boiling water before / after use (in addition to the dishwasher)
- carcasses only being transported short distances (i.e. local)
- a small insecto-cutor
- promise of getting a fridge alarm (can't find them anywhere at present)
- do not have a hand sink in the room (just hand wipes / paper towel, but there is a toilet with sink also in the house close by, and he was fine with this

he also wanted to know about carcass inspection, gralloch location & disposal, and how long the carcass would be out of fridge for butchering (explained i reduce to component parts e.g shoulder / hoaunch, and compononets go back in teh fridge until time to work on them each separately).

Given the way the world (and govt) is getting more joined up, you should assume that sooner or later the tax man will come calling and ask about revenues from your registered food business. Not a problem, but be prepared - I believe that you can offset your set up costs against revenues, so unless you have a quasi commercial operation running, you will always be running at a loss.
(I used this argument to the wife when she found out how much the rifle cost)

good luck...
 
one other point - he asked me about disposal of waste...

explained that hide went in the recylcing bin, bones got roasted for stock

seemed fine given expected volume.
 
one other point - he asked me about disposal of waste...

explained that hide went in the recylcing bin, bones got roasted for stock

seemed fine given expected volume.

Good post and this was my understanding of it. I think a few of the previous posts were not in the know, more assumption having not read the FSA guidelines.
 
My setup is carcasses arrive in their skins at my larder ready to go in chiller. Very little or no preparation. Leave chiller in their skins when picked up by game dealer. I do no processing. My EHO gave me a food hygiene rating of exempt. http://www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk/business/cooperative-deer-management-devon-728678.html She wanted to look in my landrover to see how I transport my carcasses to the larder and I'm expected to keep a daily diary of chiller temperature(even if it's empty and switched off)
 
Just had my second visit from the Food & Safety officer from my local council EHO and have been awarded 5/5* for my larder/cutting area! Cleared for selling to anyone including general public as long as I get some trading standards approved scales and labeling :thumb:

He actually said if everywhere was as good as mine he would be out of a job! :)
 
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