ServSafe Q's

[BarbaraS]

I saw that harborw**** mentioned she was going through a ServSafe qualification. Congrats harborw****!! And wow, that tasting part of the wine tour sounded awful. I was waiting for a description of "canapes - it's a piece of meat on a Ritz cracker" (quote from Godfather II).

I've heard of ServSafe. Is this a program I can take through a local culinary school or a technical school? I have friends that tell me that I make a food product that they think I can commercially market. Billy (bjcotton) has sampled this, but I've improved it since I sent him the loads he sent on to the troops last year and I think I could do it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Barbara

[labradors]

ServSave (sometimes different name in different states - when I got it, in Florida, it was "SafeStaff") training is often provided by employers, or maybe even by cooking schools.

For marketing something commercially, be sure to check your state's laws for such things. In Florida, for example, you are not allowed to use a home kitchen to produce food products for commercial sale (for a church bake sale, maybe, but not for ongoing sale to the general public). Therefore, people who want to sell their own products or do catering must use an approved, inspected kitchen. One way in which private individuals handle this is by renting the use of a restaurant's kitchen during hours that the restaurant is not open. Needless to say, the paperwork you need to file and the regulations that describe the paperwork and what you can and cannot do are about two inches thick on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.

Since you're near a larger city, you may also have special city or county regulations to consider, and not just the state.

[Harborwitch]

This is a safe food handling course available at ServSafe.com or through the National Restaurant Assn. in your area. I took the course on line and passed the pre-test; now I just have to find some place authorized to take the test.

You need to talk to your local health department and licensing agency to see what their requirements are for what you want to do. PM if you have any questions and I'm sure Jean and Denise will have contributions to this.

[pjcooks]

I took the full blown course in school 13 yrs ago, and have been re-certified twice since then, a requirement where I work. They provide the instruction and the testing. I never thought about taking the course online then finding a testing center. (That could be a pain if you have to travel to test).

In my state, you cannot cook out of a private kitchen anymore for resale. Lots of little businesses (lollipops, chocolates, cookies) went under when this new regulation passed. (Including my catering)

Good Luck!

PJ

[DFen911]

I had to take my separately from my school as they didn't offer it at the time. They gave us all the class info and told us where to go and when. Of course after I graduate they then decided to include it with the classes.

You can go to http://www.servsafe.com/ and check out the classes. Mine was a 2 day class. Each class was like 6 hours and on the second day was a test you had to pass.

[cjs]

I also had to take ServSafe at a different location from school. It was an 8 hour day finishing with the test - really intense, but not that hard.

Barbara, I would suggest you take it and with a liability pollicy, you might find a little corner of a certified kitchen somewhere locally to make your product. You'd have all your p.work in order and be ready to go. Good luck.