Selling Jam and Chutneys

Food Hygiene

The next block in the building of the Auntie Allie Empire is to sell my own jams and chutneys, made from produce I have foraged, grown on my allotment or sourced from local, organic suppliers.  (Of course when I say ‘Empire’ I am just planning to sell a few jars at a local community market but, as they say, from small acorns…)

There are certain rules and regulations concerning the selling of your home made produce most of which can be found on the Food Standards Agency and your local council websites.

However, it can all be rather confusing and I believe the best approach is to make contact with people directly.  I phoned my local Environmental Health Office from the District Council and set up a meeting with them.

A lovely lady came out to my house (which is where I am going to be making my produce) for an informal chat and to pass on all the advice she could, which included:

• My kitchen didn’t need to permanently be at a business level of cleanliness in case of checks.  When I’m making produce for my business I need to ‘close it’ from being a normal kitchen, give it a top to bottom clean, ensure the surfaces are tidy, that any hand washing is done in the cloak room sink, that there is no other food preparation taking place.
• You should have a checklist for each batch made to show the cleaning and food safety checks you have done, which would need to be shown at any inspection.
• You should have good systems for stock control and logging of suppliers etc.
• It is fine to use an environmentally friendly multi-purpose cleaner, rather than an industrial strength disinfectant.
• That it was sensible to get separate ‘business’ equipment, including washing up bowl, a bowl for washing fruit, utensils etc.
• That the biggest problem they find is ‘foreign bodies’ in produce and so it is advisory, but not compulsory, to wear a catering style hat, as well as clean clothes and an apron.

If you are going to be selling your own produce you need to do a food hygiene course.  Because I am planning such a small-scale business, an on-line food hygiene course is sufficient.  The Environmental Health Officer also noted that I had demonstrated a sound understanding of food hygiene principles (or common sense as I like to call it) and she was therefore happy to recommend that level of course.

The visit enabled her to confirm that my kitchen is suitable for making homemade produce and the surfaces are a material, which they are happy with.

You hear some horror stories about how unfair the officials have been, but I believe that a face-to-face meeting is helpful in establishing a personal contact and opening the lines of communication.  Most of the complaints they deal with concern supermarkets and foreign bodies in food.  They get very few complaints about artisan producers because we take such pride in producing good food.  However, having met me, if there were now to be a complaint, she would be inclined to know it was a genuine mistake and feel happy to contact me informally in the first instance.

At the moment this visit is free, but with all the cuts taking place in councils, I don’t know how long this will be the case.

I was also given the phone number to order a useful document called ‘Safer Food Better Business for Caterers’, which is a jargon-free pack demonstrating what you do to sell food that is safe to eat and have records of this.  Again, this document is currently free, but it may not be for long.

So, that is now another step on the path to selling my own produce.

Right, must just wash my hands (again).