Starting up a home made pickle business

[KimT]

Hi

Posting this to get help for my Mrs.
She is very passionate about making pickles and sauces at home.
Recently she got this idea of converting her passion in to business and asked me for help.

I am member in this forum for some years so i was like i know this place and someone might advise us.

She wants to start by making pickles and sauces at home and pack it. We want to try giving it to local grocery stores and got a friend who got a chain of supermarkets. He said he can display it there.

We are not sure about the legal side of making and selling food/edible items in the UK.

Also, should we use a co-packer to bottle the items ?

Any details or anything that we need to be followed when labelling the product ?

She is planning to start in a very very small scale. May be around 100 bottles for now.


Any advises from anyone please.

 

[Shopclicks]

I can't help with the rules around home cooking and labelling. However, I do know of a few home cooks who have their bottling & labelling sorted and sell through market stalls and food festivals. To start, your wife could approach other stall holders and share their stall for a %. Stalls can be expensive when you're starting out. It doesn't have to be just one market either.

I have a client who started like this and now has a website she sends her buyers to when they need more jam or fruit vinegar. But she was already established in the market scene before getting a website. Still produces at home.

Hope that helps.

 

[ecommerce84]

I run a food business so can help with your legal requirements.

In order to make food or drink, you need to be registered with the Environmental Health Department at your district level council (the same council you pay your council tax too). You need to submit your registration 28 days before you start trading.

This gives you a bit of time to get your level 2 or 3 food hygiene qualifications if you don’t have them (we use NCASS online courses).

It also gives you time to set up your food management plan and associated documents - this is the paperwork that documents your ‘safe methods’ that you use when producing your food. It also includes check sheets that cover things such as fridge and freezer temperatures and daily checklists. The most frequently used one is ‘Safer Food, Better Business’ by the Food Standards Agency. It is a very good document that guides you through what you should be doing so you can ensure you are compliant.

I’d highly recommend downloading it and working through it.

You’ll need to give thought to how you work in your kitchen. For example - If you require business food to be refrigerated, it should ideally be done in a dedicated fridge rather than your personal one. You’ll also need a dedicated hand wash sink which is separate to your wash up sink.

As you are a home based business, once you are registered with the council, they will call you to arrange to come and see your working space, your documentation and ideally you in production.

For labelling, there are pretty strict requirements.

The product label needs to have the following:
- Product Name, such as Mrs T’s Hot Chili Sauce
- List if ingredients - this doesn’t need to give quantities but it must start with the most used ingredient in the recipe and descend to the least.
- Allergen Information - if any of the ingredients are any of the 14 most prevalent allergens they need to be made clear in the ingredient list - we put them in bold uppercase text. These include things such as mustard, celery, eggs, milk etc.
- the percentage quantity of any ingredients in the name must be noted, so you’d need to note how many child’s there are in Mrs T’s Hot Chili Sauce
- the legal business name of the producer
- the address where it was manufactured
- how to store it and how long it will last under those conditions.
- Use by or best before date.
- Instructions on how to use it.
- You may need to I’ve nutritional information but you may be small enough to be exempt.

Product liability insurance - you’ll need this to cover you in case of anything happening to anyone after they try your products.

Public liability insurance - if you plan to trade at markets and events you’ll need this. Most operators we have dealt with insist on a minimum of insurance that covers you up to £5 million.

Some links to help:
NCASS: https://www.ncass.org.uk/training/food-hygiene/
Safer Food Better Business: https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/safer-food-better-business-sfbb
Food Standards Agency labelling requirements: https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/packaging-and-labelling

 

[Newchodge]

so you’d need to note how many child’s there are in Mrs T’s Hot Chili Sauce

I thought including children (note spelling of plural of child) in any recipe was a bit of a no no?

 

[Fagin2021]

I thought including children (note spelling of plural of child) in any recipe was a bit of a no no?

Obviously you've never tucked into 'Toddler in the Hole' or 'Lancashire Hot Tot'.

 

[Socio South West]

At the outset Mrs KimT needs to understand the massive gulf between a passion for something and doing it as a business - its not just a case of doing a batch because there's nothing better to do: Customers, particularly if you get into retailers, are going to need stock regularly and will set deadlines to have it delivered, and the higher up the retail chain you get, the more insistent and rigorous the retailers become.

There is also a massive gulf between making a batch at home for friends and family and the size of batch needed for a commercial enterprise.

There are lots of produce markets etc where smaller batches can be used to test the market and build up the business in a small way, but at some point facilities and equipment will be needed to take it to the next level.... and the next level...

Your friend's supermarket chain is best to remain a distant target until consistency of product and scaled up production can be achieved.

Hope you keep the forum informed on how this project progresses.

 

[KimT]

Thanks a lot for all the useful replies.
Currently studying the pointing in detail.

Will update soon and will be back if there is any questions

Thanks again

 

[Waddy]

The law says that you only need to register a food business if you are selling food on a regular and organised basis.

If you are just testing the market with a small batch of 100 jars then you should be fine, but if you decide to carry it on then you would need to register it.

 

[RandyMarsh]

The only thing I have to add to ecommerce84's excellent answer is that if you want to sell through shops you will want to have barcodes on your labels. Buying a block of barcodes isn't too expensive but makes it much more likely that retailers will want to take your products.