Selling Quail Meat?

[Fishman43]

I contacted our State Fish and Game Dept. and found out about the license needed to keep quail at home. So thinking next steps and farther down the line I thought, wouldn't it be nice to sell/trade some processed birds to the local restaurants our at farmers markets. So I looked at their website posted laws then called the State Agriculture Department, I couldn't find anything out from them! The best I got was some vague reference to the USDA- Food Safety Inspection Service. However according to this woman, they (USDA-FSIS) only inspects if you process more than 100 turkeys, 1000 chickens, or ????? quail per year.

Does this sound correct? If so, what is the number of quail that can be processed for sale before you cross the line?

Thanks!
Dan

 

[kahlertm]

I used to be a Health Inspector for the local Health Dept. here in my community. It would be wise to contact your local Health Dept. so that the food safety specialist there can put you in touch with who you may need to be licensed by, what kind of facility you might be required to use to process the meat, etc.
They will indeed probably send you to State level offices, but you would be in contact with the Dept. closest to you (who would also be the one investigating any complaint or something about your meat operation). This way you are introducing yourself and finding out the proper channels around you.

Tonya