After submitting a “Shared food facility review form” application, it was weeks before I heard anything about my status. Others mentioned having to call and check in every week to get a status. So I finally called in to find out that my application wasn’t even reviewed yet. I was told that the process typically takes two to six weeks. After calling in and leaving a message to the person in charge, I heard back right away. I received an email of my status being “unable to approve” for the moment. Additional information and steps were needed to proceed. The letter listed what else was required from me to proceed. Among them was the completion and payment for a PFR (Processed Food Registration).
That amounts to $448 added to my other general startup costs ($1,523), totaling $1,971 so far, and I’m only at the tip of the iceberg so far in getting started.
When filling out all these applications, I seem to run into confusion at times. Sometimes it may seem like what to fill out seems obvious, but being only 99% sure is not enough when your business is on the line. When I run into such confusions, Food Entrepreneurs & Business Owners FB Group has been so good with coming to the rescue. On the form, #19, #25, and #26 seemed to have gotten me stumped. After some research and feedback, I’ve gotten a better understanding of what exactly to fill out the answers as.
My business banks with Azlo, a fee-free online banking system. I heard decent reviews on Azlo and being fee-free was the selling point in my decision of where to bank. Baked by A.K. is a startup company on a shoestring budget and the monthly fees and other stuff are just not within the means right now. As the business grows and depending on how satisfied I grow to be with Azlo, I may or may not reconsider other banking options in the future. With that being said, I came across my first inconvenience with not getting what might be offered with other fee-charging banks, – writing checks! You can send checks with Azlo, just not in the traditional way that I’ve been used to.
Well, I wasn’t able to find an option for paying online for the PFR fee (tell me if I’m blind and I just didn’t see it). So that brought me to write the first check from Baked by A.K. Let me tell you how foreign writing checks have become to me. The box that my personal checkbooks came in decades ago is still full, as I do pretty much everything electronically. And they are of Care Bears, my selection of the check theme that I chose when I was a teenager. So there I was, scavenging around for the dusty envelope box to grab an envelope to mail my form in, without the check. When mailing in a check, I’m so used to enclosing it together with the paperwork that I’m paying for. If I sent it without the check together, would they send me a notice that they hadn’t received the payment? Are they used to receiving checks separately from businesses? It was all unfamiliar territory for me.
This is what I ended up doing…. lol…and mailed it in with the form.
And once my PFR gets approved from the state, I will also need to submit the other required content requested in my plan check report.
The other requirements included:
- Provide day/times when food production will occur
Oh gosh, my day/times may vary and I don’t have an exact set schedule. Expected hypothetical scenario, -say my plan is to start small at the Saturday morning farmers’ market. But I get rejected to the Saturday one but get accepted to a Wednesday evening one. I don’t think I can apply yet without having all this stuff in check….so at this point, I remain clueless of what day/times I can say for sure because they’re subject to change. #help
- Provide sample labels and a sample menu for all food categories you are proposing to make.
It’s weird because when I was in the midst of submitting the Shared food facility review form, I had questions about the labels, which I thought I needed to provide (it mentioned sample labels were needed), but I was told by a clerk there that they didn’t need it from me…so that was a little puzzling. And now they do need it, as I expected. I have the labels ready from when I started the application anyway. If I am being honest, I don’t even know if they’d want sample labels of ALL products on the menu. For now, I’m starting with about five items (and then adding to my list as I go), so I plan on submitting for all five for now. If starting with 50, am I supposed to submit sample labels for all 50? I’m not exactly clear on that (note to self: find out).
- Specify on the cook-chill selection as a food packaging method
I don’t even know if the answer I’m going to provide is going to be what they’re looking for. But to me, I selected the cook-chill option because after certain items are cooked, they’re to be chilled. For example, after baking brownies, I’d typically let it cool at room temperature, and then chill to make it easier for cutting. What else could this mean?