Legalities re: Selling Home-Roasted Coffee

[billagirly]

Hi all,
I'm not sure if I can find my answer here or not, but Google has not been much assistance in the matter.
I am curious as to if there are any laws regarding selling home-roasted coffee. I'm sure they vary by location - I'm in Texas.

I'm just thinking that my kitchen would not pass a health inspection, because I have a cat. And I've never heard of the health department going to someone's home, anyway. I

'm just not sure what I would need to do in order to sell beans without having a storefront (or any commercial property, for that matter).

Thanks in advance to all!

 

[equus007]

home roasting

You can in fact have the health dept. come out to your home and rate it as a commercial kitchen. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that you will not pass however as there are many many regs in TX that homes kitchens do not meet(floor drains being the first that comes to mind).

I would be more worried about your neighbors and the smoke. I live near 3 fairly large local roasters and can tell who is roasting the second I walk out my door. Personaly I love the smell but most people complain about the "acidic air".

I would call FT.Worth/Tarrant Co. zoning and platting dept. and ask them or maybe the DFW small business development(?) dept.

 

[FredChicago]

Well, there is alot to it. First, if this is going to be a business, where are you going to sell the coffee from, your house? How will people reorder(call your house)? Also, think about liability insurance - if the coffee gets moldy, through no fault of your own and people get sick, they will sue.
Also, a good friend of mine is a butcher and makes terrific brats, beef jerky, etc. He wanted to package it and sell it from other locations other than his store. He spent almost $50,000 US, in order to do it. You need a certified scale that is inspected one a year by the state in order to sell by weight. The scale must be accurate to 0.10 of an oumce. It also must be approved by the FDA. FDA is a stickler on food labeling, placement of information, independent lab analysis of the contents, etc. You must retain samples of every lot produced, have a lab analyze each batch, put the batch number on each package and have controls in place to track how much was sold to which locations by batch. This is incase there has to be a recall for a contaminated food product. It took 6 months and many revisions of the labeling with the FDA to get it approved. This was just so other stores could sell his beef jerky! However, if you are selling it from one location, you are OK.