Selling produce

Kaida

I was reading in Grow It! magazine an article about selling produce from your garden at the end of the drive or on a market stall, and included in this things like jam, cakes or wine made from home grown ingredients. This rung a bell in the back of my mind, something to do with regulations about selling food? Are there any? Can people just sell jam or whatever, or do you need some sort of inspection of your kitchen? What about selling veg or fruit themselves? What about eggs from garden chickens?

Does anyone know?

kate83

[FONT=verdana,geneva]This is taken from the country markets website and should apply to garden gate selling.

[/FONT]

Under current legislation, all food businesses must register their kitchens with the Local Authority unless they operate on a 'casual and limited' basis. 'Casual and limited' can be applied to Country Markets cooks. Each Producer will be assessed on an individual basis. Shareholders who cook for more than one Country Market, or for additional outlets, should register their kitchens.

All Country Markets are required to register the venue of the Country Market with the Local Authority. They must provide a list of all food producers, and an up-to-date list of names and addresses must be kept at the Country Market.

And this has some good info about selling eggs
http://www.poultry.allotment.org.uk/Chicken_a/Chicken_Egg_Excess/farm-gate-egg-sales.php

Kaida

Thank you very much Kate83, that's helpful.

elliep_2

So if you're purely selling allotment produce. Not cooked or anything, just dug up/picked and offered for sale are there any regulations?

Teahfc

Farm Gate Sales - Selling Surplus Allotments Produce


An allotment must be used for the sole purpose of growing vegetables and other produce but not by way of trade or business.

However sales of surplus produce (e.g. vegetables, eggs, plants) is acceptable in some circumstances. If an allotment holder can prove they have more than they can use themselves, it is not regarded as illegal to sell the surplus under the technical exemption called "Farm Gate Sales". With farm gate sales your house can be considered the farm.

You cannot use surplus produce from allotments to support either your own or someone elses business. For example, you cannot sell at markets and are not allowed to sell to any catering establishments.

The law on selling surplus produce from allotments is not well understood. Many councils and allotment associations tell members it is against the law to sell their produce, but this is not entirely correct. According to the Allotment Acts, produce from allotments cannot be sold to support a business, but there should be no objection to the occasional sale of surplus produce that is not for commercial purposes.

ScratchandSniff-->[X]

Kaida wrote: »

What about eggs from garden chickens?

Egg Marketing Regulations from DEFRA at:
www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/regulat/forms/livestock_prods/eggs/emr1.pdf

tomsolomon

How about selling plants???
Say I accidentaly managed to grow far too many tomato and cucumber plants would that be classed as produce?

olly300

tomsolomon wrote: »

How about selling plants???
Say I accidentaly managed to grow far too many tomato and cucumber plants would that be classed as produce?

Teahfc has answered already