USDA Processing Exemptions

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
I would love to believe it's as easy as selling live birds with free processing if requested. I very much doubt the WSDA would see it that way... but if you don't ask...

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Processing your own birds that you don't sell... is all fine and still legal, right? And you can gift all the self-processed birds you want, right?

So what about gifting all your processed birds and only accepting donations? Would be a risky business model for sure. Anyone do this?

Cheers!

I sold my birds mainly to the Asian community, and most of them did their own processing. Granted, I did a TINY scale. Anything substantial, official, not between friends/family would probably not work.

Doubt processing your own food is going to get you in trouble, but I have nothing to back that up with. People hunt and process deer and other wildife without needing inspections of their homes for personal use.

 

[rickerra]

Quote:
Yeah... love Salatin's book too. Under the Federal regs, this works. But unfortunately, Washington State slapped on additional, more strict regs to poultry processing. I don't think the selling whole birds and processing for free flies here anymore. I would love to be wrong.

2 1/2 miles away from where I live... in Idaho... they go by only the Federal regs.

Cheers!

 

[jaj121159]

Last fall when I sold a batch of Cornish X's I was told to sell at a Farmer's Market I needed an Itinerant Food Vendor's permit. So I paid my $150 and had my freezer inspected so I could store my chickens that I had processed at a state licensed facility. I thought I was all set until I got a call from the state food inspector this week. She told me I could no longer have my birds processed at that facility since I wasn't doing the processing if I wanted to continue to sell at the Farmer's Market. I talked to the inspector today and found out I can process my own birds if I don't sell at the Farmer's Market; or, I can "sell live birds" and still have them processed as a service to my customers like I did last fall; or, I can join a co-op and have my birds processed there. Not sure what I am going to do at this point. I am waiting on hearing back from the co-op to see what their per bird processing price is.