This Charming Candy – Behind the Scenes

For a while now, Kate and I have been meaning to post about what we’ve learned and what it takes to get This Charming Candy up and running.

Starting a small business is hard. Starting a small food business is even harder! One of the biggest challenges we faced was figuring out the web of oversight that’s shared among federal, state, and local government agencies here in the U.S.

On the local level, I’ve taken the King County Food Handler class and passed their test, so I’m licensed to handle food in King County. This means I could be employed in a restaurant kitchen or nursing home cafeteria, for example.

At the state level, I’ve read all the regulations and codes relevant to the food industry and have applied for the WSDA Food Processor’s license. One of the exciting milestones we’ll reach next week is finally getting this license! An inspector from the WSDA will come to inspect the commercial kitchen where I’ll be making the candy. He’ll also inspect all my ingredients and materials, and evaluate the workflow I use to turn those ingredients into delicious lollipops.

And at the federal level, there are no specific licenses. But we’ve needed to read and understand all the FDA’s requirements about product labeling so that customers know what they’re buying and who manufactured it.

When you make food for human consumption, it’s really important to do it well. Your customers place enormous trust in you and in the safety of your processes. So even though it’s been a long task to get ourselves set up and approved to be open for business, I’m personally glad we have a government that cares so much about the health and welfare of its citizens.