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I need some advice....not sure if this is the place to post it or not..perhaps the open forum would get more looks, but the Pros are here!

I would like to add smoked trout to my offerings at my pond in Colorado. I would like to have them vacuum packed and ready to go. The clients could trade their "paid-for" fresh trout for a smoked trout...for a small fee of course. This appears to work well at another pond in the Denver area...difference being, they have a restaurant on site..so here goes:

I contacted State Health dept...they said I needed a Commercial kitchen in which to do this...then I would need to submit a plan to them...etc. Any idea what they want from me? The restaurant up the road said they would allow me to use their kitchen for prep work and to store stuff if I need to...will that be good enough? Basically all the smoking will be done away from the pond...in fact I thought I would smoke the fish at home and package it there....sounds like I cannot do that. As you know, the smoking process isn't minutes it's hours, from the brining, the air-drying, and to the smoking, this stuff takes time.

I wonder if it would make sense to hire a catering company to do the smoking for me...I would supply the recipe of course!
Thanks in advance.
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Give the D.O.H. a call and ask the to clarify. State and city health codes vary...a lot. A simple "look down" drawing plan of a room showing the entrance/exit, equipment location and a hand washing sink may suffice. A hand washing sink is stipulated just about 100% of the time...as is an exit door marked with an exit sign.
Keep in mind, they're just wanting to know that the public is getting a safe product. If you let them know you're using an establish facility, you might be okay.

On the other hand, they may not let certain smokers into the facility...but the larger CS's have the NSF rating, so they can enter.

See. You ask a question of the HD and get a response. Too bad we can't just smoke 'em up.

Smokin'
Give the Colorado Department of Health, or the county department where you are located. Ask for a free copy of "The Colorado Food Establishment Rules and Regulations". Its pretty straight forward, and I have had no problem getting clarification of any section I couldn't understand.

Hungry 1
I didn't proof read very weill. The word Call is missing in the first sentence. I was able to get the okay to use a CS 50 in our business even though it is not NSF approved. That okay came from the local inspector. If your county inspector will not give you the go ahead, you can apply to the state. Cost $75 and will take 2-3 months to get an answer.

Hungry 1

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