How would I go about having home-made produce sold in a shop?

pbowenroe

I am unemployed at the minute so have a lot of free time and I have been baking quite a lot.

How would I go about getting the things I bake sold in a shop? Is it as simple as going in and asking them or are there regulations I should know about?

apologies if this is an extremely naive question

enviro

If you are running a commercial kitchen you have to adhere to HSE regulations and implement HACCP controls

See the links below

Guide for startups

HACCP for food businesses

pbowenroe

thanks for that. so do i try to get registered before i pitch my product to shops? just that there's not much point in getting registered if i can't sell what i'm making

omega42

Have you tried selling them yourself at Saturday markets or car boot sales? see if there is a market for them first

enviro

Similar to what the above poster is referring to....

Write up a business plan and test the market with samples before approaching anyone.

pbowenroe

thanks for the advice

phormium

It won't cost anything to get your kitchen registered with HSE, that is the first step, after that though you will have the cost of product and public liability insurance, about 250 for year. Easy enough to register with HSE, the average domestic kitchen is fine, some rules regarding sinks, washing machines etc. Labelling and packaging could be a bit of a pain though. You will need same things to sell at markets etc.

pbowenroe

phormium wrote: »

It won't cost anything to get your kitchen registered with HSE, that is the first step, after that though you will have the cost of product and public liability insurance, about 250 for year. Easy enough to register with HSE, the average domestic kitchen is fine, some rules regarding sinks, washing machines etc. Labelling and packaging could be a bit of a pain though. You will need same things to sell at markets etc.

Thanks for your post. Have you done something similar yourself?

phormium

No, but I know several people who have, there is a huge increase in people starting baking from home, mainly due to the economy and unemployment like your own reasons. There is a lot of competition out there and when selling through shops they have to get their profit too so it is hard to negotiate a good price that will make it pay. I was actually looking at the 'home' baked goods in my local shop today, there must have been at least 6/7 different suppliers, will you have to take back unsold goods? This would be a huge disadvantage too.