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Hello, I am Rosalind Waugh & am a small artisan business in Middlesbrough in the North East of England. I began my journey into fermenting about 18mths ago because of digestive problems due to the drugs I am on for breast cancer treatment. Fermented foods are not so well known up here , though there are people who do make their own. I sell at some local markets & people who stop at my stall do tell me that they are making their own. I have just moved into a small unit , moving my production out of the house. Fermenting jars were taking up too much space. I am having an inspection in a few weeks, so feel a bit stressed about the fermenting sides of things. Does anyone else here have a small operation & have been assessed. any advice. I have actually started running food classes, including fermenting. I entered my Beetroot Sauerkraut into Great taste awards & now need to get a label sorted. Peope seem to love this kraut.
admin3 Comments-
Hello Rosalind, thank you so much for trusting us with your story. You are a powerful advocate for the benefits of fermented foods simply by your own lived experience.
I’m making the assumption that you are being visited by an EHO for your Food Hygiene Rating.
I’ve been through the same and the feedback from mine was essentially that your paperwork is the most important bit (so long as everything else is obviously clean and well organised).
Make sure you have documented processes for:
Cleaning- have a printed schedule in your pack and on your wall
For your fermentation process (how you sanitise jars and workspace etc before and after making or jarring up)
Safety checks such as pH, fridge temperature, batch numbers and traceabilityThey’ll want to see for SOPs, flow charts/check lists – they don’t have to be complicated
It’s making sure that all the things you do are already doing are in a document.
Are you using the Safer Food Better Better business templates – it definitely makes it a little easier (but they are a drag to fill in)
You’ll also need to make sure you have a Level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety Certificate (you can do it online for £10/£15, it’s mostly common sense to be honest)
If you are feeling anxious and want to hop on a call, just shout, I’m happy to share (I got a 5 star rating)
Or if there’s something in particular about it that your worried aboutA friend of mine told me that the very fact I was getting my knickers in a twist over my visit meant that I was probably doing all the right things and thinking things through. Or in my case over thinking things x 100
Tracey
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Hello Rosalind, I am so curious on your smoked salt: do you make it yourself??!
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@celine-lecomte hi, no I didn’t. I bought the salts in Spain. I may look at how to produce it myself.
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