The first person you pay

Filling and packing are the obvious first tasks, and in a food business the training is an obligation rather than a courtesy.

What to hand over

Filling, capping, labeling, packing and delivery.

Cleaning and sanitizing, once the procedure is written, because it is the highest-value routine task in the plant.

Bottle preparation and sanitizing.

Receiving and checking raw materials against a specification.

What not to hand over

Batch release. Reading pH and Brix against a specification and deciding whether to fill is a judgment with a safety consequence.

The thermal step, if you have one, until they understand what the time and temperature are for.

Fermentation judgment, longest of all, because knowing when a ferment is finished is experience and getting it wrong sets both thresholds moving in the bottle.

And anything touching claims or label copy.

Food safety training is the baseline

Anybody handling an unpasteurized food product needs basic food hygiene training, and in most jurisdictions that is a requirement rather than good practice.

Handwashing, illness reporting, hair and jewelry, cross-contamination, and the rule that anybody unwell does not come near the filling room.

If you operate under a HACCP plan, the training requirements attach to the people performing the monitoring as well.

Document it. Training that happened and was not recorded did not happen, as far as an inspector is concerned.

The employment part

Employee and contractor are distinguished by the reality of the arrangement rather than by its name, and wage and hour obligations attach from the first person.

Tell your insurer, and tell the licensing authority if your premises approval names who works there.

References