Reply To: Herbal business
Hi Sheena,
It certainly can feel overwhelming to make internal herbal preparations for sale legally when you start looking into it, but really there are only a few items to utilise that are the basic back bone of doing it legally on a small scale.
The main thing to keep in mind is not to make any health claims on your labels or packaging. E.g. Elderberry Syrup- will keep you healthy through cold and flu season.’ Similarly you cannot make the health claim through the name e.g. ‘Cough Syrup’, without going through the process of getting an NNHP number.
You can put the name of the product e.g. ‘Elderberry Oxymel’ or ‘Hearts Delight Oxymel’ and ingredients on the bottle and discuss it’s traditional use with the customer directly at the farmers market as a ‘herbal educator’ or you can write about the product in more general terms, using something like ‘traditionally used for…’ or ‘may be of use’ or ‘can be of use’ etc. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to avoid making any statement of use including traditional as Michelle mentions, but this is your own decision.
Seraphina reviews these ideas in the Herbal products section of the Herbal Business course, including some ideas on how one could word labelling. Are you enrolled in the CHP program/have you watched and read this course yet?
The other thing to keep in mind is that you are best off selling directly to customers (farm or craft market or online) this means that you are the retailer and/or the educator, rather than the product being a standalone item on a store shelf.
There may be other specific food product or market vendor regulations locally and these rules will be slightly different from province to province in Canada. In this case I have found it very helpful to just call up the local food safety officer and ask questions. There is of course online resources as well with NNHPD, in Canada, and provincial food safety information.
Wishing you great luck as you navigate these waters, and hope that it does not completely dissuade you from creating beautiful herbal oxymels and tinctures.
With warmth,
Benna