Shared Kitchen Questions

I've been asked to render lard for a local pork farmer that they would then distribute through their established channels (farmers markets, Dill Pickle, etc). I know I need to get a sanitation certificate and work out of a shared kitchen, but I'm looking for slightly more detailed advice.

1) Do I need to be USDA inspected? (the raw fat already comes from an inspected farm, obviously)
2) Do I need a business license? I wouldn't be selling the lard myself - just making it for an established business.
3) Any pros/cons to the different shared kitchens? I know about Kitchen Chicago, Logan Square Kitchen and Now We're Cookin' in Evanston - are there others? (and yes, I've heard about the recent inspection disaster at KC)
4) Recommended sources for relatively inexpensive cookware? Can I rent it or do I need to buy it?
5) Recommended sources for food packaging?

thanks!
Elena

I don't know the answers to any of your questions, but I do want to know if you will be rendering and packing the leaf lard separately.

I will only be doing the leaf lard - no back fat or other subcutaneous fat. It's pretty amazing stuff - nothing like the waxy stuff you can buy at the store.

I will find out Monday. I am pretty sure you will need USDA approval. It is the handling of the raw material.

Hi Elena,

You do need to be USDA inspected. The fat comes from an inspected farm, but you're a "manufacturer" in this case, I believe, and the USDA will definitely want to make sure you're following the rules and regs. Same with a business license - you'll definitely need one, unless you were manufacturing the lard on the farm and might be considered an employee (but you'd still need that licensed, commercial kitchen).

All of the kitchens you named are great. I started at Kitchen Chicago, and Alexis was very helpful with business advice. More recently, I've done some work with Zina at Logan Square Kitchen, and she's also fantastic. You can't go wrong.

What sort of cookware would you be looking for? I buy mine from Jetro (Restaurant Depot) for the most part. Scouring Craigslist for restaurants going out of business helped me find my larger equipment a bit cheaper.

I'm not sure I have many packaging resources for you, as chocolate packaging doesn't need to be airtight or greaseproof. Perhaps google food packaging and go from there? You will need to have certain information on there for retail sale: net weight, city it was manufactured in, ingredients if more than 1, etc. Nutrition facts are not required unless you (or the farmer?) make more than 500k/year.

Hope that helps!

-Katherine