New guy with question

Hi everybody! I have been lurking around these pages for a few days and really like this forum. First off, a little about myself. My Father and I have a concession stand (Zeiders Concessions), we are located in Mifflintown, PA. My family has been in the business for over 42 years. We go to approximatly 10 to 12 fairs, festivals, etc. throughout the summer. We sell mostly Cheesesteak Sandwiches and Hot Sausage. Sometimes we dabble into fried foods and BBQ Chicken.
I have aa question regarding our Cheesesteak Sandwich. We put a special sauce on our sandwich that is very popular around here. It is a homemade recipe that we use. So this year at one of our busier spots we decided to bottle some of our sauce, approx. 50 bottles. 8 ounce and 12 ounce. We couldn't believe how well it sold. We even have people calling us trying to find how they can get more.
What do I legally need to do to be able to bottle and sell our Special Sauce? I know I need to get a Nutritional Label, have an ingrediants list and label, but as far as anything else I have no idea. Do I need to contact some type of agency to be able to sell this legally?
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Jeffro

Track down BuddyRoadhouse here in the forums (search members at the top also). He's very familiar with the bottling process, etc.

http://foodsafety.cas.psu.edu/processor/resources.htm#Before

BuddyRoadhouse are you out there??? I have gone through all of the pages on the forum and have got a few answers. I would like to talk to someone who has done this as we are very interested in doing this. I am going to check out the link you sent RichardFriese.
Thanks
Jeffro

quote:

Originally posted by jeffroz1

What do I legally need to do to be able to bottle and sell our Special Sauce? I know I need to get a Nutritional Label, have an ingrediants list and label, but as far as anything else I have no idea. Do I need to contact some type of agency to be able to sell this legally?

Contact your local public health district. They will direct you accordingly and provide you with the regulations. I would advise you to stop bottling and selling the pre-bottled sauce immediately, 'cause you risk some heavy-duty fines if public health sees it. Instead, offer to sell your customers an extra container of sauce, freshly poured into something like styrofoam cups.

In Washington State, bottling or canning for intrastate sales involves the state's health department and the state dept. of agriculture. If you decide to also sell interstate, you will need to involve the USDA. If you are going to produce your own bottled sauce, you've got a lot of hoops to jump through, which is why commercial bottelers are used by a lot of suace makers.

The link I posted is a University extension (so there is no company connection or interest). It goes into how to start a food business, as well as other articles outlining the requirements for the type business that you are looking into. RJF

You can contact me at:

buddyroadhouse@hotmail.com.

We'll go from there.

Buddy