Requirements for distant selling of online veg box delivery?
Hi
I need some help and guidance please on the following.
We are currently processing and prepping vegetables single units and mixes which include stir - fry mix, soup mix etc etc. Currently we state on the labels wash before use.
Now we are looking at expanding and having an ordering online veg box delivery which I need the help with. We want to be able to have this ready to cook so I need to know what standards I need to aim for, preservative dips as supermarkets use this but not declaring this. Also what I need to put on the labels.
If you need more info on this please do ask as i need to crack this asap
hope this gives the basic outline
Thanks
What exactly do you mean by this....
"preservative dips as supermarkets use this but not declaring this. "
??
Hi Astro,
I was also a bit confused by the sentence that SQFconsultant queried, but it's also going to be useful to know where you are selling these (country/region) as rules and expectations vary.
HI
Apologies, I will try and explain again.
Currently we are a veg prep outfit - non retail and we wash and treat our veg. We also do prep packs i.e. soup mixes, stir frys etc and we use Preservative Citric Acid and Hypo to clean. We put on our labels wash before use!!
We are now wanting to expand as with COVID we want to offer delivery straight to the door with Prep Veg so I was wondering as this is a new venture for me, to state on the labels ready to cook.....
What standards do I need to be at to make this statement?
Also does anybody know the process of the supermarket prep Veg as there is no declaration to using preservative.
Has anybody got any guidance on this.
This is for UK Rules - So it is prepping Veg and delivering straight to the consumers doorstep.
Thanks
PLEASE I NEED HELP
What you're asking is a little bit outside my area of expertise, but in the absence of any other input I'll share a few thoughts in case it helps - note that this is from my own quick scan of a few regs, rather than any specific familiarity with this type of product/situation.
"Ready to cook" is perhaps going trigger an obligation for you under Article 9(1)(j) of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011: ...indication of the following particulars shall be mandatory: (j) instructions for use where it would be difficult to make appropriate use of the food in the absence of such instructions.
Whether it's actually going to be "difficult" to make use of the food will depend on exactly what it is, but I'm assuming it'll be not dissimilar in principle to the bags of stir fry vegetable mixes one finds in supermarkets? In which case these usually have cooking instructions and sometimes an indication that the product is unsuitable to eat raw, along with e.g. "straight to wok" or similar that is broadly equivalent to your planned "ready to cook" statement.
It can sometimes be useful to look at labels for existing products, particularly where they owned by brands/retailers with large and (generally) competent technical/regulatory teams, so a bit of a factfinding mission in your local supermarket can sometimes be surprisingly beneficial ;)
Obviously you'd need to validate the cooking instructions, to ensure that following them does actually give a final product that is safe for RTE.
It's not a process I've used so can't say for sure, but there is scope for using various things in the washing process that are then non-declarable if they are genuinely only carried over from use as processing aids - see Article 20(b)(i) and also potentially Article 20(d) of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011.
In my limited experience it's also the case that the retailers are pretty thorough on wash performance and validation thereof, so if that's the target you've set then I'd be looking at this part of your process very thoroughly.