Craft Fairs & Food Hygiene Help - Cakes and Jams

[Emmaosk]

Just had a reality check, very innocently and nicely.
I am doing my first Craft Fair next month and it didn't even occur to me that me selling home made cakes and jams and pickles may need to have specific types of labelling etc........
Please can anyone give me advice. I run a sandwich shop where I make and sell my homemade cakes. I have a hygiene certificate. I am making all the food for the craft fair at my shop so i know the kitchen and the environment is safe and upto standards. I was going to do the norm labels, such as date made and shelf life and the usual, but I hadn't thought about actually listing ingredients on labels. Please excuse my naivity. Any help greatly appreciated.
Emma

[greannancrafts]

Hi
Basically it is all about covering yourself - talk to trading standards - tell them what you want to do and they will point you in the right direction. They are really helpful and will work with you.
Ingredient listing is important, especially if the cakes contain nuts, as are contact details.

You may have read recently that Cadburys, despite having a glass and a half of milk on their wrappers, and listing milk in their ingredients are now having to put a warning sign on their bars stating that this product contains dairy milk - in case people have a dairy allergy. The world has gone mad!

HTH

Jane

[indri]

Thinking that people can be allergic to almost anything these days, then it would be wise to have some sort of information on ingredients... even if it's one sign by each type of cake listing the ingredients. I have friends allergic to anything from flour, to melon, strawberries and body shop products....

[ThE_SeeKeR]

Additionally you need to be aware that on selling any food items, the public health agency (food hygeine) can simply turn up at the fair, request your details for where you cook and inspect at their free will under the law. Failure to comply can result in fine / possibly arrest for failing to comply.

Just thought i'd note that as alot of people are unaware of this.

[greannancrafts]

Hi

All this talk about Lemon Curd made me hungry, in my cupboard was a jar from M&S - just as I was spreading some on my toast a friend called who happens to be a small producer of Jams and cakes so I asked her about rules and regs.

As the eggs in lemon curds are barely cooked she has to use pasteurised eggs , she also has to label - best before dates - and store in fridge once opened and eat within 3 weeks.

With cakes she has to use powdered egg white for any icing again down to the "raw" egg scare.

I do urge to find out more from your authorities - they are there to help - that's what we pay them for.

HTH

Jane

[Moonbeam Angel]

Cant help, sorry, but I think the advice given above is good. As you already have a sandwich shop you know all about the food hygeine rules etc. but to cover yourself it would be good to list ingredients, common sense says that if someone has an allergy they would ask what is in the product they are buying, but sadly they don't (how stupid is that!!!)

As someone says, not a lot of people know about the rules and regs and still sell home made cakes, jams etc.

Even the WI sell their cooked goods, but they dont label ingredients!!!!! you would have thought they would know the legal requirements wouldn't you!!!

[AnnieAnna]

Just an aside, for peace of mind against being descended upon by the powers that be, have photocopies of any certificates you possess, with you at the fair.
One I'm going to is so fussy they want my insurance certificate on display.
(Most markets are sensible. As a card carrying NMTF member anybody vaguely connected with markets should know I must be insured.)
AnnieAnna

[greannancrafts]

One I'm going to is so fussy they want my insurance certificate on display.

AnnieAnna

I often have to do a risk assessment, when I enquire as to where the "lost child" post will be and where the "first aid" post will - so I can put it on my assessment - I get laughed at - another paper exercise.

Jane

[AnnieAnna]

I sometimes sit and embroider in museums. When asked for my risk assessment I go...thinks....I might prick my finger???????????
AnnieAnna

[Emmaosk]

Thank you all so much, that has been really helpful and i will be contacting everyone I need to. they were really helpful when i opened the shop so i agree they are there to help.

[enid]

ingredients

Hi,

I hope that you got this sorted out with your Trading Standards people. As a baker myself, I have always found them to be most helpful with this.

Just a point about the WI. If Moonbean was referring to the actual WI, as they bake the cakes themselves for sale, there is no legal requirement for ingredients list to be on the label other than known allergens. This applies to the Country Markets as well. Cakes that are made, sold onto another party for selling again, must have a list of ingredients, as in theory, the maker is not present at point of sale..
' Contains dates' on a date and walnut seems daft, but a lot of the legislation comes from over the Channel and we in Britain are good at following rules!!!
Enid

[Emmaosk]

Enid
Thanks so much for that, that really helps.
I contacted my local Environmental Health Office and she said it was more trading stadards as for labels etc, she then said she would email me any info she could and put a telephone number on for me. As yet i have received nothing and have just emailed the local trading standards office.
As I am making them myself and selling them myself at the craft fair your information has been really helpful.
I have labelled my details on the jars, and the dates made and how long they can be kept for. As for ingedients I was going to have the infredients available but not put more stickers on the jars, as pretty soon there will be no room on the jar just all stickers!!! lol.
Thanks for the help - only a week to go, very nervous, not fully prepared, excited too.
Thanks

[greannancrafts]

Enid
As for ingedients I was going to have the infredients available but not put more stickers on the jars, as pretty soon there will be no room on the jar just all stickers!!! lol.
Thanks for the help - only a week to go, very nervous, not fully prepared, excited too.
Thanks

Just be thankful you don't have to label 5g tubes of lipbalm or 30g jars of cream! Labelling is a nightmare

Hope all goes well - let us know how it goes?

Jane

[AnnieAnna]

Or tiny toys! Can we just have a law that says children under 3 years old just can't have toys and be done with it! (You have to give Armegeddon reasons why under 3 year olds shouldn't play with each particular toy and I'm afraid my sense of the ridiculous often threatens to overwhem my typing fingers. One day I will crack and put something really silly on a lable!)

To be serious for a moment - while flicking through the encyclopedias of EU laws (for 'flicking' - read a whole day in a library!) it did actually say that for toys the lables had to be given out with each toy - but not necessarily stuck on each one, and with cosmetics there was something about having to display ingredients with the goods but not necessarily on the goods. I'd have to look that one up but in my minds eye I have craft stall selling a basket of soaps with a poster/notice/list of contents standing up in the basket. The point is - read the small print. The EU seems to think things through quite carefully and puts in tiny get out clauses for us little people.
'Get out clauses' is the wrong phrase....more "alternative pathways for the labelly challenged".

I've always wanted to sell homemade sweets and biscuits.....but I can't face the thought of the red tape - so well done Emma for getting this far. I take my hat off to you.

One day I'll write a best seller about a tiny craft stall holder in Peru trying to do a bit of business with a tiny craft stall holder in England (little 'ol me) and the shinnanigans of jumping through the same hoops as Wallmart or Tescos. It fries my brains.

AnnieAnna

[sparkysdad]

Or tiny toys! Can we just have a law that says children under 3 years old just can't have toys and be done with it! .

One day I'll write a best seller about a tiny craft stall holder in Peru trying to do a bit of business with a tiny craft stall holder in England (little 'ol me) and the shinnanigans of jumping through the same hoops as Wallmart or Tescos. It fries my brains.

AnnieAnna

You would think that people should be liable for their personal common sense, but I used to work for an Insurance Underwriters, and in our hall of shame and fame were Philips - prosecuted successfully by a dog breeder who used her new microwave to dry poochie, a ladder company who were prosecuted successfully by a UK contractor because the ladders did not carry a warning about climbing up them too far... and many people heard about the woman who sued Macdonalds for not having a warning that their coffee was hot (no S**t sherlock!).

While I think regulation is a pain, and at times it irks me to feel I am being treated like an imbecile, on the whole I am grateful we have it, and we know what to look for.. Whether you are Tesco/Walmart or a small independent, your product should be fit for purpose, and a customer has a right to the assurance that due care has been taken..