Summer Business Update

/in , /by

Hi everyone,

Firstly, we have been sooo busy in May, June and July, with lots of lovely celebrations, so a massive thank you to all of you for your support in helping us keep going during lockdown.

My lovely sister Beverley, was helping me throughout, and because she loved the baking too, I was lucky enough to get a lovely summer break for a week on the canals around Oxford and Reading, and it was so beautiful and peaceful around there.  The weather was very kind to us too..

We have had some absolutely fantastic reviews, which is heartwarming, so a thank you to all those who took the time to let us know about your experience with the Bakery.

Some more fantastic news for us, as we were contacted by a new start up business, who are looking for the Bakery to supply them with cakes and treats for their Pet Party Venture.  During our conversation, I obviously asked why we had been chosen over the many pet treat bakeries out there, only to find that the lady is a Veterinarian, and as a business, looking for suppliers, they had struggled to find a pet bakery that had all the correct statutory compliance for selling pet treats in place.  There are lots of Pet Treat and Cake bakers on Facebook, Instagram and Etsy, but the majority, much to her dismay, had not even registered with their local authority.

The Bakery and shop is nearly finished here, just getting the signage and stockists completed and we will be ready to open to the public.

I thought that if I talk everyone through the process for Pet Treat Baking, this may help some of you who want to start a bakery, as its a little bit confusing, but there is lots of help from Trading Standard, and I am always available on the phone to give you extra support.

Setting up as an approved Pet Treat Bakery

Firstly, gather up all the information you can on what ingredients are the most nutritious for dogs, cats, or horses.  We choose only the most Healthy Ingredients and only use Natural Colourants.

Next, try to find recipes that just use those ingredients, and then have a go at baking those recipes yourself using any cutters or plungers you choose.

If you find you are enjoying baking and love the results, try giving them to family and friends to gain some feedback.

The next stage, should you wish to sell them, is to get yourself registered.

  • Register with your Local Council as a Pet Feed Manufacturer.  This will mean you are registered with the correct governing body, Trading Standards.  We don’t come under Environmental Health.  They will issue you with a Trading number.  You can do this online.
  • Do your Health and Hygiene Certificate at Level 2.  This you can do online and takes up to about 5 hours to complete.
  • Put together a method of tracking and tracing the ingredients used in each batch you bake, and record against each customer you sell them to.  You need to be able to list each ingredient, where you purchased, the batch code and the expiry date of each item.  I use an excel spreadsheet that has been set up for me (I am not the best at Information Technology)  This is called HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) and is a very important part of producing the cakes and treats, Trading Standards will want to check on this.
  • Take out Public Liability Insurance for your business ensuring you take out the maximum cover you can afford.
  • Then you need to bake a batch of 150 grams of each of the products you want to sell, and send this off to an approved laboratory for a Nutritional Analysis. The laboratory costs vary from £110.00 per product to £60.00 per product.  This information must be on your website advertising the product and as a separate label on every treat or cake you sell.  If you want the details of a laboratory recommended by myself, please message me for the details.  They take 10 days to send you the analysis details that you must put on the item description.
  • It gets a bit more complicated if you want to sell cakes or treats with any animal derivatives, if you wish to use cheese, meat etc, you will have to then register and seek approval to use them from DEFRA and APHA this is because of the implications for animal health from the improper transport, storage and use of material of animal origin.  We at the Bakery, do not use anything animal.  Everything is Vegetarian or Vegan by choice.
  • If you then create a Website, or selling on any media outlet (Etsy) you have to show your full address from where the item was baked and your registration details for Compliance with Trading Standards.

The most important thing to remember is Track and Trace, if there is a product recall from any of your suppliers, you must be able to contact your customers asap, and you must have Public Liability to cover any claims.

We here at the Bakery, want to make sure that all pets are safe, so if you notice a Pet Bakery, on Etsy, Facebook, Instagram or in your local Market, and they haven’t got any of the above listed, you can give them my details and I am more than willing to help them get to a position where they are Baking and selling safely.

Sending lots of love to you all and please shop safely.  Kind regards, Tarnia x