[Thestig]

My partner & I are looking into buying weaners to fatten up for pork. We want to retail the meat after butchering, but would like to know what facilities we need in terms of refridgeration / cold store (thinking fresh not frozen). And how long we can have meat stored for in this way.
 
Obviously we would line up customers in advance, but want to cover any cancellations.
 
Thought we would ask question here before contacting EH.
 
Any advice would be much appreciated 

[ppd]

 
I am not up on all the regulations re selling meat, but the easiest way to do it is to sell the pigs as wholes, halves or quarters and get your customers to collect directly from the butcher. That way you will not be handling the meat so you will not need to invest in fridges and worry about the rules and regs.
If you go down this route you can get deposits from customers and even a second payment, with the rest payable when they collect their pork.
You will also know that your pork is all sold up front. 

[P6te]

We have engaged EH and on the basis that we are selling to 'friends and family' they are happy that we collect from the butcher in polystyrene boxes, divide into 1/4's straight away at home and people then collect from us without delay.

The key thing to EH is that we are not handling / processing the meat and traceability is ensured. If we were selling to people we don't know and traceability was lost it would be a different matter.

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[Mrs Snoodles]

You need to keep the meat at the correct temps transporting and storing.  I bring mine back from the butchers in poly boxes wih additional cool packs if needed.   If they are not picked up immediately then you need to store them in a refrigerator.  We have an old Pepsi type fridge that we picked up on ebay for next to nothing.  You need to show that you record temps 24hrs before and during storage.
When you get the meat from the butchers our EH person told us to use cable ties around each food bag within the boxes to ensure food security.  EH also wanted to see that the refrigerator was in a rodent proof area and was within a locked environment.
Fairly straightforward.
Your Trading Standards people will tell you about labelling and use by dates etc.  When I mentioned to my TS people that I was selling by halves they were a bit lost tbh.

[Thestig]

Thanks for the advice so far, will be using polystyene boxes to bring back from butcher.
 
The reason I asked the question was that at present we do not have electric connected to the holding, we only grow veg, so dont really need it just use a geni for light and odd times we need power. Has anyone experience / comments with solar refridgeration, remember reading an article on a CSA that were looking into it to store fruit, cant remember the name or where I read it.

[Mrs Snoodles]

If this is the case, I would line up your customers make sure they know their delivery date and drop off enroute back from the butchers.  Sell to people you know and make sure they understand that you have nowhere to store stuff so they need to take it.  If you are worried about canx then have someone on a waiting list - perhaps you could offer a reduced price for their meat, working on this basis.