Any rules against selling home made cakes at work ?

littleblue735

Hi All

I am trying to raise money for my local childrens hospice and will be climbing Kilimanjaro next year. ( I'm paying the trip costs myself ).
Friends and family have been great and given as much as possible, however I'm finding it hard to get donations. I think people might donate their loose change if they are getting something in return !

So as I am good at baking, I thought that I would sell cakes / pasties etc at work. Obviously I would get permission off my boss, but my question is - Is there any H & S rules etc that would get in the way ? Hope its not too much of a silly question !!

Many thanks

TIME2GROWUP_2

Hi,

You need to contact your local council's environmental health department, they will be able to advise you. You would probably be classified as a home caterer and would need to register the food business and be inspected by them prior to starting selling food to the public... hope this helps.. for other info check out the food standards agency website..

chedder789

Are they really that fussy over a few charity cakes? :eek:

froddington

We sell home made cakes (donated by parents, etc.) at school fayres and coffee mornings and also at church fundraisers. They always sell really well.

I'm sure your boss will know if there are H & S issues but, if you're only selling to colleagues and not members of the public, I can't see there being a problem.

greenbee

No rules at all as far as I'm aware - we regularly have cake sales at work organised in aid of the charities we support officially, and people are asked to donate home-made cakes.

I have also run several myself (to avoid asking for sponsorship) and no one at work has ever raised the question of rules - our Health & Safety manager is a very good customer so I'm sure if there were likely to be any issues he would have raised them.

I am always careful to clean the kitchen & equipment before I start, and make any cakes with nuts in last. I label the cakes that have nuts, and I also state that I can't guarantee that they are nut-free, so people buy/consume at their own risk.

Earlier this year I raised about £900 from three cake sales. To save ourselves the effort of pricing them up, we asked for donations... I think we probably did extremely well out of this, and no one asked for change! One person stuffed a tenner in the pot on the basis that he could come back and help himself during the day.

From my experience, I would suggest that you make several batches of cupcakes - vanilla, chocolate, even carrot cake and maybe some muffins.

Large cakes - delia's chocolate soured cream cake always goes down well, as does victoria sponge (I whip the cream, and take cream and jam separately into work and assemble them there... and sometimes put a few raspberries or strawberries on the top). I usually take several of the same thing, and have one cut into slices, and the others wrapped up and available for people to buy whole. Anything that has previously been frozen is served up first, so that the ones left over are fresh and can be frozen for the next time (the soured cream cake freezes well, as do victoria sponges, even when filled).

You need to make sure you have things for people to take cakes away in, otherwise they'll steal your tins. Collect the lids from photocopier paper for a few weeks to use as trays, and taken in rolls of greaseproof, kitchen roll and cling film for wrapping things up.

You'll need to take sharp knives for cutting the cakes (cut them yourself, don't leave it to your customers!), and either cake boards or old plastic plates/chopping boards to put them on.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Quillion

Don't sell them ask them to make a donation for coffee and a cake.

Good luck i know these kind of things go really well my friend and i do coffee morning for Yummy Mummy week which backs the Clic Sergent charity (Caring for Chiildren with cancer) and we always get well over a hundred pounds and we only do this at home.

Dustykitten

You might find the following interesting:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3507791/Volunteers-banned-from-selling-cakes-at-hospital-under-health-and-safety-guidelines.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1045270/Health-safety-spoilsports-stop-pensioner-selling-home-cakes-charity.html

I think with most of these things you are ok until somebody decides to 'shop' you!

staffie1

It's ok as long as you're employer allows it and you do it in your own time. You need to ask them.

greenbee

In the light of the articles Dusty has posted links to, I'd suggest clearing it with your boss & making sure your H&S manager is OK with it - as the articles say, health & safety legislation doesn't prevent it, but your employer may not see it that way. You also need to make sure that you clear up after yourself, as the cakes themselves may not be a H&S risk, but the crumbs & stickiness left behind might attract vermin!

If you have an in-house caterer they probably won't be thrilled, but if there isn't a lot of it going on, they probably won't make a fuss.

We publicised our sales on the intranet and notice boards, and also bribed the receptionists to tell people! Towards the end of the day, we took a trolley round to the people we knew wouldn't have been able to get to us - at about 4.30 there are a lot of hungry people, and it's also a time when people think they might take something home with them!

littleblue735

Many thanks for all the advice, I'll make sure I clear it with boss etc !

JayZed

I work for a firm where risk management rules. The place is run by anal jobsworths who spend their time ensuring that all the relevant risk management boxes have been ticked.

We often have charity cakes available (donations rather than sales, as others have suggested), and it's never been a problem.