Selling home made food

[Mike75]

I don't have personally tried this one, but I think it might work. If you are a good cook then you can cook for your friends' parties and earn money. Its not like catering where you have to make the entire meal. You can just cook the things that you are good at .

[jamesparker100]

yes Mike75,
Its not the bad idea that you can do this business. But the thing is you need to work initially for it. You need to develop a taste of the people and your cook should be productive in sense of Taste of the food. Once it run you can easily earn money

[nanamom]

my concern would be the health and safety rules too. Anyone do this and know more?

[buildmybudget]

I would recommend at least operating a business like this under an LLC to protect your liability. I think you would need to obtain some sort of license and insurance as well if you were to operate as a business.

[PetMom]

Check with your local health department for the laws pertaining to home cooking business.

And even check with city zoning laws for what they might consider a home business, and maybe there could be building codes (certain size of commercial oven or something).

Some cooks have used their Church's kitchen to produce cooked food (as these tend to be up to the health codes).

The more informal type of thing of doing the cooking for friends and family could probably not be under such strict guidelines (unless they got food poisoning and complained to health dept).

[cicy33]

Yes, if you cook as a business you must be licensed and inspected by your local health department. In my state at least one person has to have their food sanitation certification as well. If you are simply doing this for friends and family I would say keep it low key you will probably be okay but if you branch out, well.....

[1milliondollarchallenge]

My mum made and sold cakes and things at markets and made a few hundred each time she did it.

She had to register with the health dept, get her kitchen inspected and approved and get a cert for food handling (Everywhere is different, so check with your state laws etc...)

She made fruit pies, Austrian horseshoe biscuits (these were the most popular) turkish delight, coconut ice and a few other things. She packaged them nicely, had labels for what was in the food for allergies etc... She did really well. Presentation is very important.

I had another friend do dinner parties for friends and family and it took a while to get it off the ground, but now she has a thriving business. She set a menu of what she would cook and that is what you got to choose from.

Biggest things is you have to love cooking and be happy to do tonnes of dishes! lol.

It can be quite lucrative if you do it well.

[DayByDay]

I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that if you are preparing the food in the customer's own kitchen, the health inspection/commercial kitchen requirements do not apply.

[zhuwh]

It seems that this is a good idea to make money , but i don't suggest you cook for the friend's parties , you can sell your home made food on the side of the road .

[Alan_MoneySanity]

There are a lot of food and drug laws that you will have to get familiar with before starting this kind of business. But if you have the appetite for it ; )

[MrPolarZero]

Actually, you can start by preparing a few packed samples. You can then distribute these to friends and office mates to see what they think.

[FinanceVideoGuru]

Always start out by first making sure your food is delicious and profit worthy, I suggest asking friends and co-workers. They might even have offered to pay you for that last tasty pot luck platter ‘s recipe you brought to the last party. Second you will need to make sure that your home cooked business idea meets Federal, State, and local food health requirements. I.E. make sure that your kitchen meets local health inspection standards, that it is zoned for commercial use, that you have a business license (if required), that you have appropriate insurance, and that you are following proper accounting and tax methods. Each city and state will have different requirements for each of these categories. My suggestion is to start out with your cities Licensing and permit’s office. They might even have brochures or information on their website.
Where can I try a free sample?
Good Luck.

[FinanceVideoGuru]

whoops, it got posted twice!

[MrPolarZero]

I forgot that a bit. Yup, if you really want to succeed on this one, you have to prepare delicious food. Try to give something new to make your customers crave for more.

[canada94]

A great idea, but with this Health & Safety gone mad world, one dodgy meal, and your sued...just a thought

[jerrycates]

Many do this. It doesn't hurt to do that as long as you keep it clean and safe. True that being sued for neglect can be at bay, the risk is there. However, it can work on a common group of people you know most.

[msarro]

I know you have to be careful with this. A lot of people do it under the table and sell stuff at farmers' markets. However, at least in the US, you need to have a FDA certified kitchen to produce anything meant for consumption at large. You also need to have nutritional information breakouts, determine shelf life, and be willing to submit to random inspections from FDA agents.

As mentioned above, a lot of people will use Church kitchens. A lot of restaurants will also be willing to broker a deal or barter for use of their kitchen in off hours.

[jcruz2011]

I have been doing this business for quite some time now. Indeed it helps me with my tuition and some of the unexpected expenses...Selling homemade pastries and cakes, must of my customers love it...Thanks mom for the help....students should try one of this business...

[verenciaL]

Nice idea.

[strilets]

I think it's good idea... but sometimes it so difficult to ask friends for money, even if you give them homemade food,
I know another good example,
one women prepare food for people who work in office... it is quite cheep, compare to cafe or even fast food, also more healthy )
she come to office each morning take orders and prepare food for lunch, after she brings all stuff to the office and take money

she take 15% from orders... not to much but for her it's enough