Grease Trap & ceramic cups

[Wendy]

Hello




What we are looking at is adding a coffee cart to our existing fashion boutique business in Gold Coast and sell coffee and tea with non hazardous food such as biscuits and cakes...so no hot food at all


We are only doing it to increase retention of customers to our boutique and as a point of differentiation so we are not interested in setting up a kitchen, grease trap and other costly infrastructure. From what I understand we can do takeaway coffee & tea without the need of grease trap or food license, however we would like to serve tea in shop and therefore serve in ceramic cups which will need cleaning so I was wondering if we can install a dishwasher or a sink to clean teapots, saucer & cups without the grease trap


Any help regarding above will be much appreciated


--

Thank You
Wendy

[TC]

Welcome Wendy,

Best bet is to contact your local council as laws do vary.

You may find that as the milk you will be using is classified as a food, your council will want you to meet basic food premises requirements and they may require a food handling certificate as well. They may even want more. There are also regulations for coffee carts.

Due diligence before you spend that first dollar!

Good luck.

Chris

[Wendy]

Thank You! Chris for replying - yes! we are doing that but I just wanted to ask around if someone has already done the same - thanks

[Rocky]

Hi Wendy, what you have in mind sounds a bit like what Hairdressing Salons do although beverages are always complimentary in those establishments.
You are thinking Dripolator coffee aren't you (You aren't going to buy a commercial Espresso machine, are you? $$$)
All sounds the same as staff just making coffee/tea for themselves in a typical lunchroom/kitchenette until you start charging for it, once you are selling stuff it is a different ball-game and you move into the realms of a commercial catering premises. When food (any food) handling is involved the whole thing becomes a bit more complicated .
You could be seen to be trying to compete with the local cafes - who have to meet a range of council regulations.
(if dozens of shoppers were trucking out your front door with take-away coffees I could imagine it wouldn't be too long before a nearby cafe complained to the local council to sic the health inspectors on to you)
Probably wise to think carefully about exactly what you are wanting to achieve and whether it is worth the effort.

[Wendy]

Hi Wendy, what you have in mind sounds a bit like what Hairdressing Salons do although beverages are always complimentary in those establishments.
You are thinking Dripolator coffee aren't you (You aren't going to buy a commercial Espresso machine, are you? $$$)
All sounds the same as staff just making coffee/tea for themselves in a typical lunchroom/kitchenette until you start charging for it, once you are selling stuff it is a different ball-game and you move into the realms of a commercial catering premises. When food (any food) handling is involved the whole thing becomes a bit more complicated .
You could be seen to be trying to compete with the local cafes - who have to meet a range of council regulations.
(if dozens of shoppers were trucking out your front door with take-away coffees I could imagine it wouldn't be too long before a nearby cafe complained to the local council to sic the health inspectors on to you)
Probably wise to think carefully about exactly what you are wanting to achieve and whether it is worth the effort.

Hi Rocky

Thank You! for replying & I hear you!

Plan is to have a coffee cart selling coffee and non hazardous food (been doing a bit of research) and from what I understand I can sell cakes (no icing) cookies - anything that does not require strict temperature control without too much hassle. I totally agree that there's no point doing it half haphazardly so we are prepared to invest in a coffee machine and serve tea as well. We are an established fashion boutique for 4+ years and therefore consider this as a calculated risk by adding a coffee machine. However, we don't want to get in the hassle of investing in a kitchen - so no kitchen as a) we don't have the room and b) don't want any cooking on site as our garments might smell of food

I've asked around and it seems that if you serve coffee in disposable cups there's no issue, however if you serve in ceramic then one assumes that the next logical step would be a dishwasher - chemicals and therefore access to a grease trap, etc. We don't even know how successful our coffee venture will be so investing in a grease trap is out of the question. I've read somewhere that their council allowed serving a limited ceramic cups a day - 50 or 60 ...therefore I thought i'd ask here if anyone had more info on it

Thank you for your time