4 replies to this topic

[brandeeno]

Hello,

 

I have been an avid home cook for some 15 years. I have always been making my own spice blends to use as meat rubs and for various cooking uses. Recently, I decided to give it a go at selling my products.  I purchased over a hundred bottles, lids, seals, made labels, and created new repeatable formulas for my blends. Each blend contains about 10 different dry spices (cumin, various chilies powders, turmeric, mustard, nutmeg, etc...) . I purchased about 30 pounds of spices and did the blending in my home kitchen in New Jersey.

 

I put this all together and sold two different blends at a private event, where I was given a table to sell to 200 people attending a party. I sold about 70 bottles. This helped me prove my packaging looked good and spices smelled good. Now I will await any feedback on the product once people get to cook with it. 

 

I hope to now sell at some farmers markets and other places where I can buy a table and prove the viability of my product. I plan to cook with the spice on site and give out samples this time (the prior event was just smelling it). The next goal after that will be getting the product onto shelves are various food stores. 

 

Down to my questions: I am confused on requirements to make/blend the spices and packing requirements. I am having trouble parsing through the pages of FDA documents.  Which brings me to some questions.

 

1. Am I required to make the spice blend in a certified kitchen?

2. What about bottling? Is that ok that I am doing that in my kitchen?

3. Do I need a nutritional label considering these are spices?

4. Do I need to state my ingredients? again, considering these are spices.  I often see professionally produced products list some spices then say "and other spices".

5. Do I need to list out the weight?

 

All feedback and help is appreciated, but I would like to note.... that I believe these answers differ to me versus other food products because 1) I am doing this in small batches and 2) they are spices, which falls under special category since its not "food".  If I am wrong, let me know. I am all ears. 

 

I will certainly do my own due diligence, but looking forward to your help and guidance on the above.

 

Thanks!

[FurFarmandFork]

Not sure what FDA docs you were looking at, but start at FDA's "how to start a food business" page and take it one document at a time.

http://www.fda.gov/F...y/ucm322302.htm

 

Start out by keeping your business within your state, your department of agriculture should help you with whatever licensing you need and to walk through the requirements of a home-retail food business. The requirements of your kitchen etc. will vary wildly by state, so start with those folks first, and if they won't help you themselves they will at least point you towards some guidance or regulations for your state. This will get you to where you need to be food safety and business legal.

 

Labeling: businesses on your scale are typically exempt from most labeling, the key pieces that tend to be required regardless are  ingredients and allergens (for safety reasons), net weight, and description of the contents. Individual spice labeling.

 

Ingredients: all allergens and potential sensitivities need to be labeled, along with any preservatives or colors. What you can generalize as "spice" is listed in this section of the code of federal regulations: https://www.accessda...h.cfm?fr=101.22. Some businesses may choose to declare all of their ingredients because there's a marketing advantage to doing so (e.g. you want them to know you're using white pepper, or that yellow color is due to turmeric), so you'll see variance on market labels. When in doubt, I know it's boring, but look it up yourself. Just because it's a national brand doesn't mean they're playing by the rules, or know something you don't.

 

Finally, get your kitchen/bottling environment in order by following the requirements of the FDA food code. They're easy to follow and understand, and this will get you to a restaurant/retail level of food safety that will help you meet most audit requirements, as well as attain a strong basic level of food safety.

 

The county-level restaurant inspectors may also have some advice, or otherwise point you to someone at the department of agriculture who can help you. Good luck!

[brandeeno]

Thanks, this is some good direction. 

 

I am still confused by the needs for where I blend the spices and bottle it. How do I know if I can do this anywhere, or if it needs to be in some sort of certified environment? The FDA speaks to Good Manufacturing Practices for interstate based business... So as you were alluding to, it will be easier to start all in my own state. Doing some NJ agriculture searches did not lead to any useful information for me

[FurFarmandFork]

Looks like retail food and manufacturer's are governed by county-level health departments in NJ. http://www.state.nj....y/index.shtml#1

 

Call you're health department and see if they're willing to help you navigate the requirements for licensing, normally they'll do some kind of "plan review" of your establishment prior to licensing, which will include whether it can take place in your home or not.

 

I highly recommend pairing up with someone locally who has been through the process and can guide you thorough locally if you're having trouble navigating the regulatory side yourself. There are a ton of commercial services out there for helping people get small business started.

 

-Austin

[brandeeno]

Thanks. Appreciate it.