We may earn commission from links featured in this post. Read more.
Since the pandemic, many people have started their own business. Be it as something to pass the time when furloughed or as a side income during turbulent times. Some parents may not have the kids on the weekend and need something to do.
Making sweets and confectionary has become popular but there are a lot of things you need in place to start selling them legally.
This article explains what’s involved.
Do I need a food hygiene certificate to sell sweets?
Contents
It may seem confusing at first about what you need to start selling sweets – and it all comes down to how the sweets are made, where they are made and how they are sold. You won’t always need a food hygiene certificate but it can never hurt to get one and to be on the safe side.
However, what you will need by law, is to complete a course on food hygiene which will help you understand how to ensure the premises (probably your home) is clean and you understand the principle of safe food preparation.
It is not just about TAKING the course but showing your local authority, environmental health and the food standards agency that you take hygiene seriously. Even if something is not a legal requirement it does not mean it should not be ignored or you may find people seeing you as someone who just does the ‘bare minimum’.
Making sweets from scratch
If you intend to make sweets or other confectionary from scratch then a food hygiene certificate is highly recommend but not required. Preparing sweets and packaging them yourself attracts much stricter guidelines from the food standards agency. A food hygiene course is an absolute minimum as you will need to learn
-How to properly package the sweets and what information needs to be on the label
-Using commercial weighing scales
-Keep strict records of batch numbers, origin of ingredients
-Nutritional information
-Allergy information
Quite simple to do but very easy to get wrong. A certificate won’t help you be able to do all of this but it can instil confidence in potential customers and help any unannounced visitors from the FSA
Selling pre-made sweets
Again, a food hygiene certificate isn’t a legal requirement but undertaking relevant courses is required to prove you have had the training and supervision to do so. Taking pre-packaged sweets and then selling them in smaller quantities or white labelling them is significantly easier than making them from scratch but great care still needs to be taken to ensure it is hygienic.
A food hygiene course will cost around £30 and will need to be refreshed every 2-3 years.
Re-selling Sweets
Whilst not directly selling sweets, if you do plan on re-selling them then again a certificate is still highly recommended but not essential. A food hygiene course, will still be recommended to prove you understand how to correctly store your product.
The storage room where the product is kept needs to be clean and free of contamination.
What else do I need to sell sweets from home?
Aside from the certificate and courses, other things are required such as:
-Declaring your income to HMRC
-Registering your business to your local authority
-Ways for customers to contact you
-Privacy policies and returns policy on a website (if you use one)
Related Articles
