Starting a Food Business from Home

Starting a food business from home can be a rewarding business venture. However, it is only for those committed to maintaining the highest level of hygiene and food safety. Producing food in your home for many people to eat is a serious undertaking. It is not the same as cooking for the family! You will be entering into a highly regulated business area with serious legal obligations. Food business operators are legally responsible for producing food that is safe.

 

Food Hygiene Legislation

Operating a food business from home does not exempt your business from the requirements of the food hygiene legislation (Regulation EC 852/2004). This legislation sets out requirements for:

• Registration of the business with the Health Service Executive (HSE).
• Hygiene rules to be complied with.
• Training.
• Food safety management system based on the principles of HACCP (Hazard analysis and critical control points) to ensure the production of safe food.
• Traceability systems and recall procedures in the event of unsafe food being placed on the market.

Where food of animal origin, e.g. meat, poultry, eggs, fish, unpasteurised milk, is being processed, you may also need to comply with the legislation setting down specific hygiene rules for foods of animal origin (Regulation 853/2004). In some cases, the business may require approval by the HSE.

You should contact your local HSE office as soon as possible to check if your home is suitable for the intended food business activities. Contact details for local HSE offices are available HERE (Contact details if you’ve made a complaint about a food business and want to follow it up with the local food inspector, or if you need to register your business).

 

Additional Legislation

Compliance with additional legislation may be required depending on the type of product which you intend to make, e.g. labelling, additives, marketing standards for eggs, nutrition and health claims etc.

Full details of all food legislation can be found on FSAI website page Food Legislation.

 

Possible Pitfalls when Operating a Food Business from Home

Starting a food business from home can present specific problems that you should be aware of.

1) Food can become contaminated due to:

• Normal domestic activities – there must be proper segregation of business and domestic food preparation and activities.
• Poor hygiene – not washing hands properly or frequently enough, particularly after using the toilet, handling refuse etc., dirty cloths and tea towels, poor cleaning. practices, dirty equipment/utensils etc.
• Working when ill, particularly when suffering from vomiting/diarrhoea, infected skin wounds, flu, coughing and infections of the mouth, throat, eyes or ears.
• Changing/feeding babies in food preparation areas.
• People or pets entering food preparation areas.
• Facilities being too small.

2) Production of too much food for the size of the area.

3) Insufficient/unsuitable refrigerator space to keep food chilled.

4) Lack of equipment necessary to cool food fast enough after cooking.

5) The type of food being produced or the process involved presents too high a risk to take place safely in a domestic kitchen.

6) Food may be supplied to a vulnerable group, e.g. babies and young children, pregnant women and the elderly.

 

Food Labelling

Food which is prepacked by the manufacturer before being brought for sale at a farmers market or other food stall is subject to the full labelling rules. All of the mandatory information, must then appear on the product label. More information on what is required to be declared on the label is available in FSAI factsheet Food Information for Consumers at Markets Operated by Country Markets Limited. These rules also apply where it is intended to sell your produce in local retail premises.

 

Additional food safety related useful information can be found on FSAI website.

 

Please remember – it is a legal requirement that staff who are involved in a food environment are trained and/or supervised commensurate with their work activity!

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Food Safety (HACCP) courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie

Safe Food Preparation Tips

Every person working in a food-handling industry must maintain a high level of safe food handling. This article is going to provide some basic safe food preparation tips.

The primary objective of the hygiene rules is to ensure a high level of food safety to protect customers. It covers the activities carried out by food service outlets that prepare and sell food to be consumed directly by customers or wrapped and pre-packaged before they are sold.

You can prevent the spread of food poisoning bacteria through good food handling practices and by maintaining good personal hygiene.

 

Burning Hot Tips

• Cook food thoroughly. The core temperature should reach 75°C instantaneously or equivalent, e.g. 70°C for two minutes. The core is taken as the centre or thickest part of the food.
• Keep hot food hot. Keep hot food in a hot holding cabinet (above 63°C). This is outside the danger zone.
• Lukewarm food is dangerous. Keeping food only warm is a perfect environment for bacteria to grow.
• Cooked food not stored above 63ºC should be used up within two hours of cooking.
• First In First Out. Ensure the first batch of cooked food placed in the hot holding cabinet is served first.
• Only reheat, i.e. regeneration, once.
• Reheat to piping hot at 70°C at the core of the food.
• Discard hot held food leftover at the end of the day.

 

Ice Cold Tips

• Keep cold food cold. Store in a refrigerated display unit (below 5°C). This is outside the danger zone so bacteria will not multiply.
• Only freeze food once. Once food is defrosted, bacteria can multiply. If this is frozen again, the amount of bacteria could be at a dangerous level.
• Defrost thoroughly. If the centre of the food is still frozen it may not be fully cooked before serving and some bacteria may survive.
• Date leftovers and as a general rule, discard after two days. Salads and sandwich fillings leftover at the end of the day may be kept for use for the following day provided they are covered and remain at refrigeration temperatures.
• Use up the leftovers first and avoid mixing them with freshly prepared salads or sandwich fillings.
• If cooling cooked food for refrigerated storage – cool food quickly but let the steam evaporate from the food first before covering and placing in the refrigerator. Cutting the food into smaller portions or spreading in a shallow dish will facilitate quicker cooling.

 

Good Safe Food Handling Practices

• Never allow raw food to come into contact with cooked or ready-to-eat foods.
• Store raw foods separately from cooked and ready-to-eat foods.
• Alternatively, store raw food on the bottom shelf in the fridge and store cooked and ready-to-eat food on the top shelves.
• Keep food covered or store it in sealed food containers.
• Wash your hands between handling raw and cooked/ ready-to-eat foods.
• Use separate work areas, utensils and equipment for preparing raw and cooked/ready-to-eat foods. If this is not possible, clean and disinfect utensils and work surfaces carefully between these tasks.
• Ensure that your service cloth is kept clean and is replaced frequently.

 

Good Personal Hygiene

Good personal hygiene is one of the most important practices to ensure safe food.

• Wash hands regularly
  • Wash your hands thoroughly using hot water and liquid soap:
    • Before starting work
    • Before handling cooked or ready-to-eat food
    • Before using disposable gloves
    • After handling raw food
    • After using the toilet
    • After handling rubbish
    • After smoking
    • After touching your hair or face, sneezing, coughing and using a handkerchief
    • After performing routine cleaning tasks
• Be clean and tidy
  • Be clean and tidy and wear clean protective clothing such as an apron or overall when handling or serving food.
  • Keep hair clean and covered under a cap or hairnet. Long hair must be tied up.
  • Keep nails clean and short.
  • Don’t wear strong perfume, nail varnish or excessive make-up.
  • Restrict your jewellery to a plain wedding band and small earrings.
• Treat food with care
  • Do not handle food unnecessarily – use tongs where possible.
  • Do not pick your nose, lick your fingers, taste food with your fingers, eat, chew gum, cough or sneeze near food that you are preparing or serving.
  • Cover cuts and sores with a blue waterproof dressing.
  • Inform your immediate supervisor if you have diarrhoea or an upset stomach. If you are ill you should not prepare or handle food but may perform alternative duties until the illness has passed.

Adherence to these safe food practices is essential in any food safety business. However, there is no reason why safe food handling should not be practiced in your home as well. SefeFood has some additional advices for kitchen hygiene and food safety for domestic kitchens.

 

Please remember – it is a legal requirement that staff who are involved in a food environment are trained and/or supervised commensurate with their work activity!

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Food Safety (HACCP) courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie