
Ask HN: What would it take to build the Etsy of Food? - dawhizkid
I&#x27;m wondering if the only reason it doesn&#x27;t exist yet is the big legal question around food safety&#x2F;food handling.
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RoyTyrell
You're probably correct that the largest hurdle is food safety and legal
issues. I'm not sure about every state, but I know in my state food for sale
must be prepared in a legally defined "commercial kitchen" which is only
allowed to be used for preparing that food not for home use (i.e. can't use
your home kitchen).

Frankly, if the company ran even 1% like Uber in the sense of "maybe we'll ask
forgiveness" and just do what they like, people will die.

~~~
dawhizkid
What are the food poisoning stats from licensed commercial kitchens? I'm
curious if the rate of food poisoning from home cooked meals is really much
higher.

~~~
stephenr
Home kitchens used for family meals have inherent reasons to be safe, and
safety nets:

They're usually cooking The food for themselves/direct family, so while
accidents/mistakes can happen, they're not motivated by profits to cut
corners.

Secondly - the distribution potential for the food is quite small. If
something _is_ unsafe to eat, you have a small group of potential sufferers,
rather than 100 or 1000 people all over the state/region

~~~
dawhizkid
sounds like this is called "cottage food" and states are evolving here. sounds
like there's opportunity.

[http://forrager.com/laws](http://forrager.com/laws)

Surprisingly, California has one of the most liberal laws w.r.t. cottage food
industry of any state:
[http://forrager.com/law/california](http://forrager.com/law/california)

Also:
[https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB626)

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jbms
Regarding food safety, the UK's Food Standard's Agency has a category that
specifically deals with food prepared in homes and sold to the public:
[https://www.food.gov.uk/business-industry/food-
hygiene/movab...](https://www.food.gov.uk/business-industry/food-
hygiene/movable-temp-premises)

The requirements are not insurmountable.

Please someone do this! There's loads of (mainly) women on Pinterest who
explain how they bulk prepare a month worth of food for their families in a
day or two, and freeze it/jar/store it. I'd love some near me to prepare more
and I could just buy up some of it and throw it in a slow cooker or oven.

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donohoe
Yes - I would argue that is exactly the reason.

That said, I don't think its unnecessary regulation either (unlike some good
arguments that could be made for taxis/car-services IMHO).

I would not order from a place where the quality and safety of the food was an
open question. I'm more inclined to either order direct from a place, or go to
Marly Spoon, Blue Apron or others.

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twobyfour
In addition to the food safety questions, you have issues around shipping
perishables. The extra shipping costs alone would probably be prohibitive and
make your target market extremely narrow. That or you'd be restricted to
basically selling stuff like hard candy.

~~~
dawhizkid
There's 2 potential approaches. First is local pickup and delivery (cheaper,
perishability less an issue) and/or limit foods to be either frozen, not
cooked, or non-perishable.

Other is more expensive i.e. cross-country 1-day shipping of frozen, dry-ice
packed, or non-perishibles. There's definitely a market for this i.e.
[https://www.goldbely.com/](https://www.goldbely.com/) but definitely a
narrower market (i.e. $80 for 2 Joe's pizza pies from NYC).

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tmaly
I was at a recent NY Tech meetup where there were some student teams from a
hackathon.

One of them called Chefy was doing this same exact concept. I think I have
their contact details at home if you are interested in this space.

------
joeclark77
I think you first need to explain what "the Etsy of Food" is. What do you have
in mind, exactly?

~~~
dawhizkid
Essentially a marketplace of homemade meals that can be shipped (frozen,
uncooked, otherwise shippable). Delivering Mom/Grandmas cooking at scale.
Amazing to think of all the food, especially ethnic food, that I can't
otherwise get at a typical restaurant but have had at a friend's parents home
or relative's home.

I live in an area with so many Chinese people, but can't find a decent
dumpling restaurant. And frozen dumplings from Safeway don't cut it. I'm sure
your average Chinese household within .5 mile radius from me makes 100x better
dumplings than I could buy commercially anywhere near me. Would love to just
buy a few dozen frozen dumplings from the best Chinese mom near me and give
her a marketplace to do it.

~~~
joeclark77
I'm pretty sure licensing requirements would make it impossible. In my state,
just selling raw vegetables at a farmer's market requires jumping through
hoops of paperwork and inspections. Selling any kind of prepared food requires
more. Some products are practically impossible for anyone except a large
company to get permission to produce. Your Etsy of food would have to find out
how to get all of its vendors trained, inspected, licensed -- a different
process in each state -- and probably have to provide them with practical help
in the logistics of refrigerated shipping, etc. My suggestion would be to
focus on one metro area only, rather than try to create a national-scale
dotcom business.

Alternatively, become an activist and change agent in the political sphere,
and try to get some of these barriers torn down.

