food packaging

[lane]

I noticed that one of the local health food stores around here has a small raw food section with some of nature's first law products and some really great books- beyond that they don't carry too many convenient products for people just getting started....I was thinking of offering some of the seed bars that I make for my family to sell at the store, but have no idea how to go about "professionally" packaging them-- any ideas? The only thing I can think of is using one of those food saving contraptions that sucks the air out, and then cutting around the edge and attaching a paper label to the outside. I would love to hear other suggestions...thanks in advance!
-cc

[SNMB]

I don't know about the packaging but you'll have to get some certification for that. If it's a small health food store, you'd probably be able to get away with just a food safety certification. That is, if you're not saying your products are organic. The organic certification is another on top of that. Some stores, chains like Safeway and QFC, require you to have another certification that is much more rigorous and very expensive that tries to assure that no one will get a piece of glass in their food, etc.

I don't know if this information pertains exactly to you, but I work in a bakery and we sell our bread in a few health food stores and this is what we had to do. Also, your own state's laws might vary. Hope that helped!

[exurb]

it varies by area, state, etc., but we have this law that any food packaged for retail sale must be made in a commercial kitchen. To qualify for a commercial kitchen here when you're being inspected, it has to be a kitchen totally dedicated for the manufacture of the commercial food product in question, you can't have any of your own food in there, or your own food preparation, etc. It can be in a house, but it has to be totally dedicated for the commercial food only, and no other food can be prepared or stored in there. I guess the thinking is that if someone's three day old leftovers are in the fridge with the stuff for the commercial operation, then unsafe things could transfer over. You must also pass the food safety course like the one SNMB mentioned.

You will have to look into your local/state laws to see what's required.