Starting a jerky business means choosing where it's made, because meat jerky sold to stores or online has to be made under inspection: federal inspection by USDA, or a state program that inspects to the same standard. Home kitchens and cottage food laws generally don't cover meat jerky. That leaves three paths. A retail store exemption: a shop that makes jerky from inspected meat and sells it to household customers at that shop, in normal retail amounts, can do it without inspection, but it can't sell that jerky to restaurants or other stores. An inspected kitchen: your own inspected establishment or time in a shared inspected kitchen, where you work to a written HACCP plan, since jerky is a heat treated, shelf stable product with hazards to control: the cook that kills pathogens and the drying that keeps it safe on the shelf. Or a co-packer with inspection makes it to your recipe. Labels follow the inspected route too: generic approval for a standard label, submitted for approval when it makes special claims. In the example below, a jerky maker launches from a shared inspected kitchen for about $4,050. Below are the paths, the rules, the example, and a free launch checklist.
The short version
- Meat jerky sold to stores or online is made under federal or state inspection.
- Cottage food and home kitchens generally don't cover meat jerky.
- Retail store exemption: from inspected meat, to household customers at your own shop.
- Inspected kitchen: your own or shared, with a written HACCP plan.
- Jerky's controls: the cook that kills pathogens, and drying for shelf stability.
- A co-packer with inspection can make it to your recipe.
- Standard labels have generic approval; special claims are submitted.
- TaroStack keeps each run's lot, readings and beef lots together. More below.
The paths
| Path | Who can buy | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Retail store exemption | Household customers at your own shop | Inspected meat; normal retail quantities; no sales of the jerky to restaurants or stores |
| Shared inspected kitchen | Stores, online, anyone | A HACCP plan, the kitchen's inspection, your labels |
| Your own inspected plant | Anyone | A grant of inspection, a HACCP plan, sanitation procedures, a building |
| Inspected co-packer | Anyone | A recipe, a minimum run, and the co-packer's paperwork |
The plan itself is in jerky HACCP plan, the co-packer comparison in jerky co-packer, and inspection in USDA meat inspection requirements.
The rules
| Rule | Where |
|---|---|
| Inspection | No preparing meat food products for commerce except under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 610) |
| Retail store exemption | Sales to consumers, at least 75% to households, only inspected meat used, normal retail quantities (9 CFR 303.1(d)) |
| Cooked products | A retail store's cured, smoked or cooked products go only to household consumers (303.1(d)) |
| HACCP | A written plan for each product with hazards reasonably likely to occur, heat treated shelf stable products included (9 CFR 417.2) |
Many states run their own meat inspection for sales within the state. This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: launching from a shared inspected kitchen
Cedar Hollow Jerky, the made-up jerky maker in Bozeman, Montana, I use in these examples, started in a shared inspected kitchen before it ever thought about a co-packer. Its checklist, counted back from a first sale on April 3:
| Step | Weeks before | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Path chosen | 16 | |
| Recipe and process tested | 14 | $200 |
| HACCP training | 12 | $500 |
| HACCP plan with support for the cook and drying | 10 | |
| Inspected kitchen agreement and deposit | 10 | $250 |
| Label, generic approval | 8 | |
| Water activity test | 8 | $150 |
| Bags, oxygen absorbers and labels | 6 | $700 |
| Product liability insurance | 4 | $900 |
| First run: kitchen day, beef and marinade | 1 | $1,350 |
| Total to start | $4,050 |
The retail store exemption looked cheaper, but Cedar Hollow wanted shops and online orders from the start, and jerky made under the exemption can't go to other stores. The label kept to a plain "original beef jerky" with no special claims, so it went on the generic route; a "no nitrites added" line would have meant submitting it. The first run of about 400 bags cost $5.52 a bag to make, against $6.50 to shops and $10.50 direct. How the prices were set is in how to price homemade jerky.
Get the checklist
Download the jerky launch checklist. One sheet: type your first sale date, and each step's due date counts back from it, with the cost and the date done; the status shows on time, late, to do or overdue, and the total to start adds up. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The checklist gets the first run out. After that, every run needs its cook temperatures and drying record with its lot, and an inspector or a store can ask for them any day.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each run's lot, readings and beef lots together.
Your own fields on the batch record. Each run's batch record can carry fields of your own: the internal temperature at the end of the cook, the drying time, who checked them, with sign-off.
Beef lots into bags. Each batch records the beef lots it used, received with the supplier's lot and establishment number in fields of your own, and the bags get a lot of their own.
Where it went. Each shop's order records the lots it got, so if a run has to come back, one recall report shows every shop it reached.
| The job | Binder | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Cook temperature for a run | A paper log | A field on the batch record |
| Which beef went in | An invoice | Lots on the batch |
| The bags' lot code | Hand-written | The batch's lot |
| Which shops got a run | Invoices | One recall report |
Recipes, batches with your own fields, lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.