Selling meat

[ABode]

Aye up,

Just jumping on this thread as it covers nearly everything I wanted to find out

With everything kicking off I've got people asking for meat direct so I'm looking to sell meat boxes (whole, half and quarter beasts).

To reduce the paperwork and issues my plan is:
Slaughter at Abattoir
Get it butchered professionally
Butcher vac packs and labels
I take delivery and put in freezer.
When order comes through I send frozen meat in an insulated box next day delivery.

The question is; what regulations do I need to adhere too? Do I have to get registered anywhere or do I simply have to keep a record of the efrezer temperatures?

I've tried to ask the council, but they're a tad busy right now.

Cheers.

 

[Old Boar]

You will be covered to some extent by the butcher, as they will be inspected and the scales checked etc.
You will need a HACCP in place, detailing the hazards that could happen from the point of collecting the meat to handing over the box, and how you prevent it from happening (temp checks etc). Write down when you clean the van, what you use. Plenty of info on HACCP on the web. Dont overcomplicate it but make sure you have every step covered.
You will be using the van for commercial reasons so check the insurance. You will also need insurance for the meat, as the odd customer will complain about something.
You may need to do a food hygiene course depending on your local authority. I would not think these are running at the moment though.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

To reduce the paperwork and issues my plan is:
Slaughter at Abattoir
Get it butchered professionally
Butcher vac packs and labels
I take delivery and put in freezer.
When order comes through I send frozen meat in an insulated box next day delivery.

The question is; what regulations do I need to adhere too? Do I have to get registered anywhere or do I simply have to keep a record of the efrezer temperatures?

I've tried to ask the council, but they're a tad busy right now.

Cheers.

Back when I was involved (about 10 years ago now), we did more or less the same,

• Deliver pigs & sheep to abattoir (Mon/Tues)
• Collect Vac-packed joints, sausages, steaks, and pies etc from butcher (Tuesday PM)
• Load fridge van (Tuesday evening)
• Do market stall Wednesday, Thurs & Fri
• Do some home deliveries
• Freeze anything left over with a short date
• Drop off old stock with Butcher to be cooked into pies

Key points:

• Get a good butcher
• Get a catchy looking label with your farm details on and some breed info
• Use some professional looking insulated packaging
• Try to time type of stock with the month (joints in winter, BBQ stuff in summer)
• Try not to get stuck with gear that people don't want (I often wished the whole beast was made of rib-eye...)
• Don't waste time & fuel (money) driving about any more than absolutely necessary. Do different areas on different days.

At the time we didn't need food hygiene certificates/training as we were not handling raw meat. We just needed to record the temperature on the market stall fridges every hour.

Make sure you package raw and cooked separate (obvs)

 

[ABode]

Thanks everybody. Sounds great. Do I need to register with the council for any reason? DO they need to inspect the Freezers?

Sounds all fairly doable, you've been a great help.

 

[Old Boar]

It depends on the council - mine were red hot on paperwork and would turn up to inspect just before Christmas when we were flat out and exhausted! But I was butchering pork, which is considered higher risk, and packing raw meat and making endless sausages.

Ask your potential customers what they want. Do they want large or small joints? As they are probably home, larger joints may be the way to go. How much mince in a pack? I would pack around 10oz which seemed to be a favourate weight. A good butcher can make the most of any animal. You can sell bones (illegal to give them away!) for soup, which saves you paying for waste, so offer that, especially marrow bones which they can feed to their dogs. Leave the meat on the bone for joints - it will cut your costs for butchery and any good cook knows it makes for a better joint.

Including recipe ideas and cooking tips always goes down well. You dont say where you are, but the meat promotion people in your area may well have free stuff like recipes you can add to the box. It all gives a feel good factor which is what you want to have repeat orders.

 

[Greenbeast]

Thanks everybody. Sounds great. Do I need to register with the council for any reason? DO they need to inspect the Freezers?

Sounds all fairly doable, you've been a great help.

Yes, and yes.
Contact EH and they'll assign you an EHO, they'll want to see how you transport the meat, where you store it, how you plan to keep temperature records, etc...
They are usually helpful rather than a hindrance i gather.

 

[Greenbeast]

Yes, and yes.
Contact EH and they'll assign you an EHO, they'll want to see how you transport the meat, where you store it, how you plan to keep temperature records, etc...
They are usually helpful rather than a hindrance i gather.

I say 'I gather' not through inexperience, our eho was good but I also gather they are generally alright

 

[Chasingmytail]

The EH side is easy its all the other stuff thats hard. You need to shift a lot to make it cost effective. May seem good over this period but be careful with your spending in the meantime. Keep your overheads as low as possible. Its no longer a USP everyone is doing it, the quality varies you can buy on the net and get better so unless its amazing from start to finish dont get complacent and price accordingly.

 

[Greenbeast]

Yeah i'm not sure i'd want to be starting during all this, not to put you off, but we had a thing going already which has been somewhat paused and we've been able to just send a few animals in and ramp back up with the new demand

 

[Sid]

Can anyone tell me what size "box " you need for 10kg of 2 week hung meat and how you keep it cool using a courier.
Is next day ok with ice pack , (how much ice 30%? )or best before 12?

 

[Greenbeast]

We just use a 24 hour service

 

[Sid]

We just use a 24 hour service

For frozen or chilled?

 

[Greenbeast]

Either, the larger the temperature differential the quicker the heat transfer.
But that aside, we use woolcool with rehydrated ice packs, they've been tested at 48 hours, so any time the next day is fine.

 

[Courier]

Either, the larger the temperature differential the quicker the heat transfer.
But that aside, we use woolcool with rehydrated ice packs, they've been tested at 48 hours, so any time the next day is fine.

Always a good idea to aim on Tuesday to Thursday deliveries then if there is a hold up it can be upgraded to AM.
If sent out on a Friday then Next day means Monday unless specified for Saturday and remember no deliveries on Good Friday.

 

[Greenbeast]

Always a good idea to aim on Tuesday to Thursday deliveries then if there is a hold up it can be upgraded to AM.
If sent out on a Friday then Next day means Monday unless specified for Saturday and remember no deliveries on Good Friday.

Yes quite, we just sent out our first pet food parcels yesterday for delivery today

 

[delilah]

Yes quite, we just sent out our first pet food parcels yesterday for delivery today

the courier guys are going to love you, when fido gets a whiff of them walking up the garden path .

 

[Courier]

Yes quite, we just sent out our first pet food parcels yesterday for delivery today

That was written on Tuesday ?

 

[Kidds]

You may need to do a food hygiene course depending on your local authority. I would not think these are running at the moment though.

You can do Basic Food Hygiene Certificate online.

 

[Greenbeast]

That was written on Tuesday ?

I was saying we sent out for a Thursday delivery so there's time to fix things

 

[Courier]

I was saying we sent out for a Thursday delivery so there's time to fix things

But there won’t be a delivery on Good Friday so unless you can persuade the carrier to deliver on Easter Saturday ( unlikely unless previously booked as such) in the case of a “discrepancy” the next delivery would be on Tuesday.

Anyway, hopefully the delivery on Thursday went ahead OK (better than 98% do) [emoji1360]