Food Distribution business

buike44

I want to set up a food distribution business importing food stuffs from Africa and distributing and selling to shops in the UK. Does anyone know if i can package these at home? Are there any particular regulations which i need to look into?

lincroft1710

What sort of food? What quantity? What storage facilities have you got?

You'll definitely need product liability insurance.

buike44

Its mostly herbs, flours and seed type like foods which are used in traditional african meals. I am not figured out where the stuffs could be stored. I was considering renting a unit.

lincroft1710

So will you import these in sacks and then repackage in (say) 500g or 1 kg polythene bags or packets. What sort of weight will you be importing at a time?

This link may be useful : http://www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/regulation/

buike44

Hi
Thanks for reply. Yes thats exactly what ill be doing. Importing them from Africa, then repackaging and selling to African shops in the UK. I havent decided what weight ill be shipping over. I need advice on regulations etc regarding this and basically setting up a business as a small trader to do this.

lincroft1710

As well as the previous link which should tell you about food hygiene and packaging rules, this link is to the site often recommended on here for new businesses

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home

whitelabel

have you checked out the competition, what is currently there ?
ive seen whole aisles of imported african stuff in the local tesco from one company, can you complete with that ?
is there a demand to make a business
there are a lot of costs you will incur and hoops to jump through before you even get started,
there are also strict restrictions on the importing and resale of food stuffs, that are not prepacked and marked at the time of import.