The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: WinslowPorker on October 15, 2010, 07:38:23 am
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Hi everyone,
Its been a while i know, very busy at the moment and lots going on including losing my job and thank god finding another one!!
Anyway with the abundance of hedgerow fruit this year i have registered as a jam maker with the council, but i need Public Liability insurance, so my question is what do i exactly need, where do i get it and how much does it cost??
Cheers
WP :wave:
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had no idea you had to register!
but presumably the council would be able to tell you seeing it's them insisting you have it?
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Phone your house insurance company ours is included. If not they should be able to sell you some. Its not much £28 for the year i think
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Is that insuring against you poisoning the public with your kitchen skills or against your visitors to the premises falling and hurting themselves?
I've never heard of it for jam making, tho I have public liability insurance for the ponies through BHS membership and professional insurance for my therapy practice with Towergate in case I am unethical and hurt people..
I thought you just needed an elementary food hygiene certificate (if that?) in case someone claimed they got food poisoning from your products..
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Jus to add ours isnt for Jam making tho ???
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As I understand it, if you are selling any food to the public, you have to register as a food business with the local authority in whose are you are based.
The Environmental Health Officers will inspect your premises to ensure that the food you are selling is safe. You will be expected to demonstrate due diligence in your processes to protect the public. Many people take the Elementary Food Hygiene course to help to demonstrate due diligence but it's not compulsory nor would it protect anyone who had the certificate but whose actual work practices were not hygienic. The frequency and detail of inspections depends on the food you are selling - we sell eggs only, so we had one inspection and we'll get a questionnaire every three years. Pickles, jams etc are not high risk in that they are cooked at very high temperatures but if you were selling say, custard tarts or cream cakes, these would be deemed high risk and would be subject to more intense scrutiny.
Trading Standards may also inspect to check labelling and weights and measures.
I would think you will need public liability insurance in case someone gets sick after eating your produce. A look through Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine might through some light. Or try one of the smallholder insurers - or NFU Mutual, as more farmers are diversifying into food production.
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You will need product liability, we took ours out when we started as I intended to sell eggs and fruit and veg.
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I use Ian Wallace the craft insurance people for my soap making
http://www.craftinsurance.co.uk/
give them a shout, see what they can offer? they insured me same day.
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Sorry!No smiley for choked on my coffee and rolled about laughing!!!!!!!!
All I can think of is this ;)
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the
1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's, 80's !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem'
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell
phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
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Thanks Guys much appreciated i will give them a call, someone said that my house insurance may have Public Liability insurance.
Plums are you making jams etc, if so where do you get your sugar etc etc.
I have also today set up a business name and brought a website, so will let you all know when it is up and running.
i am going to do hedgerow jellies mainly and a couple of other things from some really old cook books!! really excited and will beposting agin more often.
ttfn WP
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WP it sounds really good!! please do let us know when the website is up :)
I make jams and chutneys but not to sell - however I have a friend who makes jams, chutneys etc that she sells in her shop. Tony makes wine and we both buy our sugar from tesco in the 5KG bags. we joke about the fact I buy in shed loads of caustic soda, citric acid, sugar etc...not long before bomb squad will search our house!
My insurance is for Goat milk soap (www.itsbaaathtime.com) and i have to have PI insurance in case someone tries to sue me as I am a sole trader, not ltd company and its a bit scary how many people have jumped on the 'make a claim' bandwagon (i blame all those "were you injured..." adverts grrr!!)
A lot of xmas fairs, markets etc won't allow you a stall as a soaper if you dn't have insurance - not sure about jams worth looking into though if that was your plans.
also...get a FB page, I get so much business through mine and it allows you a brilliant medium with your customers - i ask for suggestions for new bath bomb fragrances for example and if 60% of answers are all one thing you know you could be on a winner, i also do give away competitions for 100th new member etc,
must stop waffling away, have to go and run a soap stall today - eek!
Lisa
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Sounds great WP. Do let me know when you are up and running.
Hope everything is good with you and the family.
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Hi JulieS,
Yes all is good at castle WP, although been very hectic lately, lost my job in September so a major worry on the cards but managed to get a new job that starts in a weeks time, however did lose a months money which i am grateful for only being out of work for that long!
Jam business is really comi g on leaps and bounds and Jessicas Jams will be launched very soon........
Hows all in Cornwall?
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Really great thanks WP.
Love the name 'Jessicas Jams'. Look forward to tasting some when they are ready.
:)
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I thought that maybe they were afraid that someone might fall into your jam pan!
How indeed have we survived all these years!!
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Hello Plumseverwhere
How do you make the goats milk soap - sounds fab - we are thinking of getting a goat!?
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On a similar vein - I am running a dog training day in a field for our Club next month, which will be covered by our insurance provided I prepare Risk Assessments, and do a safety talk. Damned nuisance but they won't cover us otherwise! We have templates for dog shows and for shooting days but not for basic training days! I now have to think back to the day I visited the grounds and remember what hazards there were and how we should deal with them Aaaaarrrrrggggghhh!
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Its ridiculous the amount of things you have to do, i mean labelling for example! i dont know about all of you but when i open a jam and the get it out of the fridge some time after, if its fizzy of furry i wont eat it if not then down the hatch it goes - so how do you put that on a label??????????? or should i put please apply common sense when eating :wave:
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Hi Zackyb - I make it using the cold process method (ie the old fashioned way!) with caustic soda, goats milk olive oil...
you'll need more than one goat if you go ahead - they need goaty company :)
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Its ridiculous the amount of things you have to do, i mean labelling for example! i dont know about all of you but when i open a jam and the get it out of the fridge some time after, if its fizzy of furry i wont eat it if not then down the hatch it goes - so how do you put that on a label??????????? or should i put please apply common sense when eating :wave:
If it's fizzy, yes throw it away but if furry just take off the mould and the jam underneath will be fine.
Take it from me who's been eating furry jam for 60 years!!
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And me! It's only Penicillin anyway. ;D
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If you've set up your own company, you should be able to go to a wholesalers - I have a Costco card and get my sugar from there. This year we have strawberry jam, raspberry jam, pickled onions, chutney and rosehip syrup - admittedly, mostly will go as christmas presents though! :D
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Went to get some sugar yesterday from Asda and thought great they have 5kg bags!! then looked at the price £4.90 something, so checked what 2KG bags were and they are £1.35. So buying in bulk was 98p per kilo or buying the smaller bags is 67.5p per kilo!!!!!!!! ??? do they think us consumers are stupid?? just shows you that human nature must see bulk bags and assume that you get a better deal so just buy it without looking at the prices but you end up paying 50% more! i was furios.
Going to check Costco prices today and see whether they apply the same rip-off philosophy
Busy day got 1000 jars turning up all of which need filling :wave: :pig: