So, you have an idea to start a food business. You have a great recipe and food that everybody likes and keeps asking you to make!
GREAT
You’re ready to take it to the next level, you’ve done some research and found out what it takes to set up a food business however you have quickly realized that scaling up production isn’t quite as simple as making ten times more food than you usually would.
Maybe you’ve started to panic about food safety, legal requirements and HACCP training and are thinking of giving up.
DON’T
You can find a tonne of information about food safety and HACCP on the internet. One of the places to start may be here or here. If you’re not a food scientist or technologist you can easily get lost in all the information out there.
But HACCP is really not something to freak out about. Firstly, it stands for the Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points - it says exactly what it is.
You need to think of your product from the production point of view. Then, within your production process, you need to know where your product could get contaminated – meaning, what are the points which, if out of control, will result in your product being packed with a nasty virus or bacteria, or containing metal particles or anything else you would rather not eat yourself.
Finally, you need to put procedures in place to avoid the possibility of contamination at all costs. It will be these procedures that ensure a consistent and safe product.
There is no ‘one size fits all’ procedure. Each production process is tailored to each individual product – even if it’s the same item or similar. People making exactly what you make may be doing it in another way or in different conditions and therefore their way of dealing with the food safety can be very different from yours. Therefore, resist the temptation of copying what other people do and develop your own HACCP system that fits your product, your production environment and business needs.
As daunting as they may seem, HACCP training courses are fairly straight forward. Be prepared and go in with questions specific to your product and production process. Ask whatever isn’t clear to you. Make sure you know how to define the control points and critical control points in your production process when you walk out of the course. Make the most of the money you’re spending to get qualified.
With your production processes defined, food safety course completed and confidence at an all-time high you will now need a production facility. That’s where we come in.
Give us a call or email and we will help guide you through the next steps in getting your product on supermarket shelves.