I have been enjoying the wonders of home canning, making jelly's, jams, and fruit butters. I am giving these and making baking mixes for Christmas.

As I am preparing all of this, a thought popped in my head. I would like to try and sell these products at street fairs, craft shows, and possibly by mail order. I am assuming though that these products will need to be USDA approved for sale.

Where does one begin? What is involved? Any help is greatly appreciated.

THANKS!

-- Monique Maack (moniquemaack@yahoo.com), August 22, 2001

Answers

USDA is primarly for meat products,Grains, Pork, beef, poultry and related items, eggs, milk,etc. They do cover food saftey manufacturing issue and raw materials going into foods but they dont directly approve a specific food.

If you just doing casual sales you shouldnt have anything to worry about from the USDA. You might have local business issues to deal with but thats another issue. If you would go full time production of food for resale then FDA and USDA would be involved but at that point your not going to be home canning because you couldnt meet the cleaning guidlines for foods.

You can reach the USDA at http://www.usda.gov/

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), August 22, 2001.

Monique,

In general, if a food is prepared for sale, it is the local health department that qualifies the establishment. They inspect the kitchen in which the food is prepared and issue a Dept of Health Certificate. A business license may be required in addition.

-- Dwight (summit1762@aol.com), August 22, 2001.

You can write to your state Dept. of Health, or talk to the ext. in your county. Generally they have a book listing all the requirements.

Most of the time you need a separate kitchen from the family one with bathroom facilities nearby. What seems to be important is the material for the walls and floor. All surfaces need to be easily cleaned and sanitized.

Our state requires a food sanitization certificate. It is easy...a two day course and most of it is common sense.

I am hoping to turn an area of the basement in our new place into a certified kitchen. Since there is already water, lights and cabinets, it should not take too much. I will have the county health inspector in to tell me what else I need to do.

Reading through the book I received from the Health Dept. there was some mention of temp. set ups. Since I will be selling bakery goods at farmer's markets, 1 or 2 days a week, 6 months a year, I may not have to go through all the other stuff.

One thing for sure, everything must be clean, clean, clean and sanitized!

Good luck to you.

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), August 22, 2001.

Go to www.attra.org and surf their catagories. They list the links.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 23, 2001.