[Mrs Snoodles]

Over the past year I have been selling lots of eggs and a whole heap of veg outside the front door.  No item is worth anything over £1.50.  Our stall has done really well, things sold quickly (with some people actually complaining that the were not enough eggs.....do we have the word TESCO across our front door?  )

My friend suggested that I ought to be selling my meat on the same basis.  I do have somewhere I could do this, and could easily rig up a small freezer etc however I am a bit concerned about food safety regs.  If the sausages come packed, are transported in a refridgerated unit etc, can they simply be popped in the freezer ready for sale?   Wishful thinking 

Cheers

[kja]

you need to be registered with the EHO they will come and check you out,food labels have to state use by dates weights meat contents of sausages and a list of ingredients etc. best call your local EHO they will come and talk to you registration with them is free.

the other thing they were interested in when they came here was veichle access and parking for H & S reasons.

[MAK]

Congrats Mrs Snoodles on selling so much from  the front door - it sounds as if you have the potential to sell other produce if you tick off the requirements Kja identifies. good luck !!
We sold 12 eggs last year to our neighbour's home help. No one passes our door in VERY rural France - never - but yesterday we had a couple of walkers and to my astonishement two cars. One was a Uk registered mercedes and the second, yes a second, was also a UK registered car. I was gob smacked but we did not have time to put the "tea Room" sign up.

[Mrs Snoodles]

Truly in the sticks then Mak....very brave! I take it you're not on street view then 

Thanks kja, I will give them a call and start there and see what's what.

[kja]

are you not registered with EHO if you sell meat you should be unless every customer collects from the slaughter house / butcher.

[Daisys Mum]

are you not registered with EHO if you sell meat you should be unless every customer collects from the slaughter house / butcher.

I did not think that I had to be as I collect from the butcher and deliver to my customers. The meat is vac packed and labeled and is in my vehicle for no longer than 30 minutes, oops seems like I had better speak to EHO.

[Fowgill Farm]

are you not registered with EHO if you sell meat you should be unless every customer collects from the slaughter house / butcher.

I did not think that I had to be as I collect from the butcher and deliver to my customers. The meat is vac packed and labeled and is in my vehicle for no longer than 30 minutes, oops seems like I had better speak to EHO.

I have queried this with EHO and most of them turn the blind eye to occaisional one off delivery however if you do it as an economic activity then yes you should be registered.
Mandy

[Roxy]

Lady down the lane has her pigs killed and then just puts a sign on the gate advertising sausages, bacon, etc .....you just knock at the door and buy from her.  Doubt the EHO knows she is doing it    
My egg customers are very irate just now, as the hens are moulting.  I have explained this, and they say, well Tesco has some ......until the other day when a lady admitted Tesco too, had no free range eggs .....shock horror .......not just my hens then!!!!  Then they ask when WILL the hens be laying then?  Cannot answer that one

[kja]

are you not registered with EHO if you sell meat you should be unless every customer collects from the slaughter house / butcher.

I did not think that I had to be as I collect from the butcher and deliver to my customers. The meat is vac packed and labeled and is in my vehicle for no longer than 30 minutes, oops seems like I had better speak to EHO.

as with lots of things in life these grey areas are not a problem until someone wants to earn a few brownie points unless you have somthing in writting to say you dont need x y or z take it that you do else they could come calling.
when we started doing pigs for meat we asked all the questions with AHO & EHO they said so long as customers collected from the butchers / cutting plnat you did not need to register but if you intend to deliver you have to register with them, i should think you will get away with the odd pig but if you are doing pigs in numbers they will ask questions. our TS are at the slaughter house most mondays and very often they ask who is having the end product hard to say you eating it if you have a trailer full  a local farmer got caught out with a impromptu visit after putting a sign out for pork & turkey he had a few hoops to jump through to get on track with them.

[Mrs Snoodles]

Think you dead ring there. Small scale, no big problems, anything bigger than I can see questions being asked. mind you, we've only ever had the vet at our abattoir, never TS. ....always a first time ...

[oaklandspigs]

This are is complex and every TS seems to explain things differently [ie make up different rules]. 
 
Of course if you work in TS, you'll want people to register and do the full thing as 1) you'll have seen cases where for instance bad storage caused illness, 2) the more who go through this process the more likely that you'll keep your job and 3) If you told someone they needn't and then they cause an illness outbreak, you'll get blamed.  So nothing in the system will get you a "don't need to" answer if you ask officialdom.
 
This is not an area of my expertise so below is just my understanding, but in general there are two seperate issues here.
 
1. public vs. private sales
 
If you advertise then this is a public sale, and you'll need to be registered as a food business, and comply with various regs inc Food labelling regs, and correct storage and transport.
 
If you sell privately - ie a private agreement to people you know, then this is just that - a private arrangement not subject to the regs of a public sale.  Of course if your meat kills them, still expect to be done !
 
2. Farm gate sales.
 
There is a tradition/concept that sales from the farm gate are ancillary antivities to agriculture, so don't come under the same rules as a shop would.  However I can find no legislation that states this, and if you are putting boards up saying "pork this friday", then checking with TS may be a good idea. 
 
As others have said if you're doing this regularly, then maybe TS should be contacted, but whilst some TS may be really helpful, others may see this as an opportunity to make you go through hoops!

[Mrs Snoodles]

The RPA chap who came for an inspection recently didn't even classify eggs sold through a farm box scheme as a commercial enterprise.  Again, it was a question of scale. Small amounts, through this and at the gate. Advertised, done weekly etc but not huge.

[Mrs Snoodles]

A bit of an update.  We had a visit from a local Environmental Health Officer who was the food safety side of things.  I was dreading it, to be honest, thinking that we would have to set up all sorts in order to comply with regs etc.
Good news! She was brilliantly helpful and really supportive, keen to point out that a half box, and pre packaged (by butcher) sausage operation provided minimum risk.    All I have to do is record temperatures of our refrigerated trailer, the storage refrigerator and the storage freezer.  Obviously I need to show that areas are rodent controlled but interestingly, her main concern was OTHER PEOPLE being able to tamper with our meat supplies.  We need to keep everything locked up at night but can sell during the day.  I hadn't even thought that this would be a worry.

I have to contact trading standards re: labelling and weighing. My butcher will do this anyway for the
sausages but there is some grey area surrounding the need to do this selling on a half pig basis.

I thought things would be really complicated but it all seems pretty straightforward and allows me some flexibility as to how I can sell     

I know alot of people don't bother with all this as they sell to friends and family but if you wanted to take things a step further and advertise, putting yourself 'on the radar' then it's not so bad after all

[HappyHippy]

Great stuff  There'll be no stopping you now 

My EHO is like yours  they just want to keep folk safe and that's never a bad thing.

[happygolucky]

Thats brill Snoodles!! sell sell sell ....its such a nice thing to see small business doing so well, especialy in these hard times.......