ajuelfs Junior Member Joined: 28 Sep 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Waterloo,Il Expertise: I love coffee
Drip: Braun Roaster: I-Roast, Sonofresco
Posted Sun Sep 28, 2008, 9:45am Subject: Guidelines for roasting out of your home
Hello, I am new to this forum, and happy to have been allowed to join. I have been roasting my own coffee for a few years, and now plan to roast for local people only as needed. I do not plan on flavoring or grinding. Will be delivering, not allowing customers to pick up at my home. I was hoping to find out what if any health regulations there would be in the state of Illinois for this. I do plan to get with my local health department, but would like any input from anyone already in this type of business. Thank you.
Pengangaan Senior Member Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Posts: 8 Location: New Hampshire Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sun Sep 28, 2008, 3:22pm Subject: Re: Guidelines for roasting out of your home
I roast out of my home as well and I am doing the same thing. Mostly to support my coffee purchases and offset coast. I live in New Hampshire, and there are three very important things to set up before you run with it. *First - If you plan on making money with it, even if a little. Look into the laws required for owning a business. I went with an LLC for the sole owner tax benefits, and living in NH helps a great deal too. *Second - Depending on where you live could determine how you are going to roast your coffee. In NH, if you live in a duplex or single occupancy dwelling, or own your home. You are pretty much ok with setting yourself up with a BBQ grill roaster of sorts or some other outside unit that requires a flame or kindled fire. But if you live in a residents with more than two dwellings, as I do, then you are required by law to keep such things at least ten feet away from the building when in use. (This is burdensome if you live on the second floor or above.) Or you can use an approved electrical device, I have yet to find out what is approved. *Third - And this is what you are concerned about. The health issue asspect of what you need to do and how to do it. In NH it is vage at best concerning Coffee Roasting. The types of sanitation certifications vary depending on gross income, seating size, and type of food packing to name the major concerns. I make very little money, do not have seating capabilities, and do not package a know parisable food item. Coffee, as most people think. Keeps for a long time and is not considered a parisable food for the most part. (That is if you leave it out in its container or other sealed container.) It is kinda like peanut butter, it takes a long time to go bad. But to those of use that have a decerning taste for coffee. It goes bad rapidly by becoming bitter, bland, or just plan off tast. I have not done the sanitation thing yet as I am in the process of looking for another place to live so I can expand on the whole coffee roasting aspect. It is getting to the point I have to do volume in order to make this a lucretive business as I enjoy roasting. I have about 200 pounds of green beans in my kitchen and several discerning customers. I could bid on a local University contract but will not since I cannot do the volume required to meet their demand. So I am holding off until I can get to the volume output capability. In the mean time I am desinging my own roaster to provider the same quality of coffee in volume as I am providing now. R&D is great, but risky if you don't know what to do. I have many years of experience as an Aircraft Tech, Industrial Tech, Appliance Tech, took and passed test to become Propane and Natural gas Tech certified (Just didn't send in paper work and the $135.00 fee.) So I feel comfortable with designing my own machine, wiring it, setting it up, and making work on electricty, propane, or natural gas. E-mail me if you would like, I am willing to talk more. Regards and enjoy roasting!
ajuelfs Junior Member Joined: 28 Sep 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Waterloo,Il Expertise: I love coffee
Drip: Braun Roaster: I-Roast, Sonofresco
Posted Sun Sep 28, 2008, 5:50pm Subject: Re: Guidelines for roasting out of your home
Thank you for your advice. I live in a single family home, and plan to do the roasting in my basement. A few years ago I had approached the city about doing this in my garage. They said I should do it out of my basement, the reason than was they thought I would have traffic from people coming to get their coffee. But I plan to deliver, do not want my home to be a store. I had contacted the health department, they pretty much told me what you are saying that it is really not a food product. They feel it is more of a grain. Definitely would need more control if I were flavoring, brewing, etc. I plan to start small, but is probably a good idea to form an LLC. I am unfortunately not as confident to build my own roaster, but will be starting with the Sonofresco, somewhat partial to fluid bed roasts, and also plan t oroast at some outdoor events, they make an LP version that is small enough to do this as well. Good luck with your venture.
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