Do you love to cook, bake cakes and make snacks? And do you want to turn your hobby into your profession? Starting a catering business is perfectly possible from home, possibly next to your job. Regardless of the food business, you want to cater food from home, you will have to know where to start to comply with the regulations set for it. You may also be needing management software (vereinsverwaltungs software) to help you manage your orders, deliveries, and customers.
Surinamese, Italian, or any other cuisine. Everyone loves good food. More and more often it is the home baker or home caterer who takes care of this down to the last detail with lots of love and passion. It is therefore not for nothing that food bloggers and vloggers have thousands of followers and that cookbooks are selling like hotcakes. Heel Holland Bakt, Masterchef, 24 Kitchen. Cooking and baking is hot.
Read also: Food Blogging Marketing: Content is not Enough
A hobby or business?
When selling food from home, it is sometimes difficult to answer the question: are you an entrepreneur or not? By law, you have a business if you independently supply goods or services to others, with the intention of making a profit. Check whether your activities meet the criteria for a company.
Catering from home, you have to arrange this
Many catering starters sell food from home. They get to work in their own kitchen. Maybe you want to go bigger and, for example, renovate your garage. In both cases, the following advice applies:
- Check the conditions of your municipality. You will probably have to report to your municipality that you want to sell meals from home. Investigate whether your plans fit within the zoning plan of your municipality and the rules surrounding the renovation of your home. The municipality can help with applying for an environmental permit, amendment of the zoning plan or an extraction permit. Arrange your registration. If you produce, process or sell foodstuffs, you must register in the consumer product safety authority of your region.
- Check your mortgage agreement or rental contract. In your mortgage agreement or rental contract you can read whether you can start a business in or near your home. You can contact your bank or landlord to discuss your plans.
- View your insurance policies. You have home contents insurance and home insurance for private belongings and the home itself. They do not cover damage to company assets and workspace. That’s why you probably need to expand your current insurance policies. Check this with your insurance company and contact an advisor if necessary. In addition, take out insurance for the risks that you cannot bear yourself.
- Familiarize yourself with food business regulations in your area. For example, the HACCP regulations state how to make a clear distinction between food for catering and food for yourself. It also describes what your workspace must meet.
- Familiarize yourself with the conditions of delivery. Do you want to deliver food or drinks to your customers with your own means of transport? Then make sure that this means of transport is clean. Heating foodstuffs must remain at a minimum of 60°C before dispensing. Refrigerated goods at a maximum of 7°C. Contact materials, such as packaging materials, must be suitable for food storage and must not pose a threat to food safety.
- Take hygiene in the kitchen very seriously, it must be in order. Not only because of the control of the authorities but also because your goal is to nourish and not the other way around.
This is just the beginning of a wonderful journey. The most important that should be on your list are food safety and compliance.