hello fellow pizza munchers…my name is Wayne, and im exploring the idea of a small take and bake store. Also i would like to be able to offer my pizza for sale to local minimarts (there are lots of them in my area, lots of small towns here with small scale mom and pop conveniance stores).
The idea was influenced by another local man who started his first pizza shop in a small polebarn about the size of a single bay garage. He then upgraded to a very elaborate westside store that he built from the ground up.
About 6-8 months later i started seeing his frozen pizzas in the smalltime minimarts, but has recently been picked up by the schnucks grocery chain, and maybe others that i dont know about.
My question to you guys is…what type of license would i need to be able to sell to other retail joints? Would i need a special distributor license for this.
My apologies if this has been discussed here before, but i did not come across this topic while skimming through the forums.
Thanks for any info you may have…Wayne
I believe from reading these forums that if you sell uncookrd wholesale pizzas that contain meat you will need to be licensed/inspected by the USDA. Tom, the dough doctor, is the one on this forum that would know the most about this. He’s gone for a couple weeks but if you post your question directly to him, it’ll be easier for him to find when he logs in.
You open up an enormous can of worms when you attempt to sell pizzas to others for resale. The insurance cost alone can be heavy. If you sell a pizza to someone else to resell and they do not handle it properly and someone becomes ill you will no doubt be involved in the subsequent law suit.
Thats true, ill need to speek with my agent. Now im having second thaughts on the take and bake concept in general…i can just see someone picking up their pizza and then going to get their hair done or running errands with one of my pizzas in their trunk. I could probably end up in a suit either way really… Thanks for the replies guys…Wayne
I recently looked in to this to !!! Here in ohio they said that first of I had to have a permit from the ag dept(as it falls as retail) they give a permit to cover the dough and cheese then need another permit for the meats and veggies. That wasnt a big deal ($100 or so total) BUT you have to get labels made up and tests done on the food. The labels have to be just like whats on most items at the store highest ingredrient to lowest used. Then you have to have all nutritional facts— calories- sugar-sodium and so on. The testing alone for me would be about $3000. Plus as states on the other post you have to worry about if someone leaves it in the car or on the counter then eat it and get sick!!! I decided it just wasnt worth the hassle or extra time and money for me. If you do it make sure your insurance is pretty much maxed out on coverage so if some issue at the store with their cooler goes down and still try to sell it and get a bunch of people sick your covered.