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Selling it

Who inspects you

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The definitions are federal and the enforcement is usually your state department of agriculture. In this category the questions are predictable, which means you can prepare for them.

The two questions you will be asked

What the kill step is and how you know it works, and how you control allergen cross-contact. Everything else follows from those. A maker who has written answers with records behind them is in a completely different conversation from one who has good intentions.

Describe the product fully

The nuts and their source, whether you roast or buy roasted, the roast parameters, what else is in the formulation, what else runs through the equipment, the jar, and where it will be sold. The roast is the detail makers leave out and it is the one that changes the answer.

Have one folder

Supplier documentation with lot numbers, the roast validation, the roast records, the allergen and cleaning records, and the batch log. Being able to hand over a folder rather than assemble one changes the tone of an inspection, and assembling one under pressure is how gaps get found in the worst way.

Ask about the venue, not only the product

A farmers market, a retail shelf, a restaurant and mail order across a state line can each sit differently. An answer about making it does not settle whether you may sell it where you planned to.

Record who told you what

Name, date, what you described and what they said. Guidance gets restated and staff change, and a specific conversation you can point at is a different position from a recollection.

Expect more attention than the size of your business suggests

This product class has an outbreak history, and the scrutiny attaches to the category rather than to the maker. That is not unfair and it is not personal; it is the reason a small producer here needs documentation that a jam maker at the same scale would never be asked for.

References

United States Food and Drug Administration. Guidance for Industry: Measures to Address the Risk for Contamination by Salmonella Species in Food Containing a Peanut-Derived Product as an Ingredient. fda.gov
Michigan State University Extension. Cottage food law: which preserved products are covered. canr.msu.edu
United States Food and Drug Administration. Compliance Policy Guide Sec. 570.375, Aflatoxins in Peanuts and Peanut Products, June 2021: FDA may consider peanuts and peanut products containing total aflatoxins greater than 20 parts per billion to be adulterated. fda.gov
Written from federal regulation, FDA compliance policy and published food-safety research, not from a laboratory. The kill-step pages describe a real hazard and are a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture and a process authority, not a determination that any roast you run is adequate.