Chapter 156 Threshold

"Brother Lin... how is your brain structured?!"

Qin Lang was so excited that he stood up abruptly and paced back and forth around the table:

"Do you even know what your decision means?! Look at how popular your plum juice is in Jiangcheng right now!"

Qin Lang became more and more excited as he spoke, and even couldn't help but gesture with his hand on the table:

"That's SK-II Facial Treatment Essence!"

"If you just mix and sell it cup by cup in the store, you'll only sell a thousand or eight hundred cups a day at most. But if you make it into a concentrated concentrate and store it in sealed jars..."

Qin Lang took a deep breath, his eyes shining brightly. "Then its sales scope won't just be this Golden Street, or just Jiangcheng! Those bosses who don't have time to queue, those nouveau riche from other places, will all fight tooth and nail for this one can of raw liquor! This is practically a money-printing machine!"

Seeing Qin Lang's excited appearance, Lin Fan remained unusually calm.

He poured Qin Lang a glass of warm water and gently pushed it towards him.

"Take a sip of water, don't get excited."

Lin Fan sat down on the high stool opposite him, his tone still calm and unhurried:

"Let's put the printing press aside for now. The reason I called you here today is because there's a hurdle to overcome. I'm a cook, and I don't know much about this kind of thing."

Qin Lang picked up his water glass, took a swig, forcibly suppressed his excitement, pulled out a chair and sat down: "Brother Lin, what's the threshold?"

"Qualifications".

Lin Fan reached out and tapped the table twice.

"What I have hanging in my shop now is a food service license. I make soup in the shop, dilute it with water, put it in cups, and sell it to customers. This is called freshly prepared and sold food service, which is compliant and legal."

"But if I put the concentrated concentrate into glass jars, seal them, and even later add outer packaging and labels before selling them..."

Lin Fan looked at Qin Lang, his brows furrowing slightly:

"Does this, in nature, qualify as pre-packaged food?"

"I heard that this thing not only requires a food production license, also known as SC certification, but also a whole bunch of complicated quality inspection procedures. I doubt my front-store-back-kitchen model will pass the tests, right?"

Upon hearing Lin Fan mention this, the fervor on Qin Lang's face gradually faded, replaced by a serious business expression.

He put down his water glass and nodded in agreement.

"Brother Lin, although you're not in business, your intuition is indeed sharp. You've hit the nail on the head."

Qin Lang leaned forward slightly, drew a line on the table with his finger, and began to explain the science to Lin Fan in detail:

"In our country's food and drug administration system, catering and food processing are two completely parallel sets of regulatory standards."

"If you're just using a plastic cup to hold some plum juice, that's called dine-in or takeout. As long as the kitchen hygiene standards are met, nobody will bother you."

"But once you use a sealed container and put an expiration date on it, it becomes 'prepackaged food'."

"According to regulations, production must be carried out in a standardized workshop with a clean and sterile environment of at least Class 100,000, and an SC food production license must also be obtained."

"If you bottle and sell products privately in your store, and you are caught or maliciously reported, then it is definitely a 'three-no product' (product without manufacturer's name, address, or production date). Fines are a minor issue; you might even have to shut down your store."

Lin Fan nodded slightly after listening.

This is pretty much what he expected.

Zhang Dawei's malicious report from two days ago is still fresh in my mind. He would never make such a basic mistake on rules that are easy for others to use against him.

"What if we find a contract manufacturer?" Lin Fan asked.

"Finding a contract manufacturer is the most common method. The food processing plant in which my family has a stake has an existing aseptic filling line."

Qin Lang shrugged and looked at Lin Fan with some helplessness: "But the problem is, Brother Lin, your plum juice recipe is an absolute trade secret."

"If you opt for OEM manufacturing, you not only have to hand over the entire cooking process, but you also have to disclose the proportions of the raw materials to the factory's technicians. Are you comfortable handing over this crucial information?"

"impossible."

Lin Fan didn't hesitate for even half a second before refusing.

The core of sour plum drink is the [century-old charcoal-smoked dried plum] and [Tianshan snow lotus honey] produced in the farm space. These things simply cannot be handed over to others for mass production.

"I knew you'd say that."

Qin Lang sighed. "So, the conventional OEM model won't work. But rules are rules, people are flexible."

Qin Lang stroked his chin, his mind racing, then his eyes lit up:

"Brother Lin, there's actually another compromise—apply for a [Food Small Workshop Registration Certificate]."

"A small workshop?" Lin Fan raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Qin Lang explained, "In recent years, the policies have been relaxed. Small and micro-enterprises with traditional skills but that don't meet the SC standards for large factories can apply for local food workshop qualifications."

"Your kitchen's hygiene standards have even been praised by Section Chief Liu of the Food and Drug Administration; they fully meet the requirements. With just a few minor modifications, such as setting aside a separate aseptic filling room of a few square meters, and purchasing a small ultraviolet sterilizer and vacuum sealing machine, it will be fine."

"With this certificate, your pulp can be bottled legally and compliantly, and sold locally in Jiangcheng. Once the scale expands, we can build a separate central kitchen that meets SC standards."

After a moment's thought, Lin Fan felt that the plan was indeed feasible.

"How long will it take to renovate the sterile room and equipment?"

"Leave it to me. I have a professional construction team. You don't need to close down. We can work through the night while you're closed, and it'll be done in three days at most. I'll handle the permit approvals through the fast track. We'll get the permits within a week."

Qin Lang patted his chest and gave a guarantee, but then his expression turned somewhat serious.

"But Brother Lin, qualifications and equipment can be solved with money, but there is one core issue that I must clarify beforehand."

Qin Lang stared into Lin Fan's eyes, his tone becoming extremely serious:

"Since it's pre-packaged food, a label needs to be affixed to the can. Besides the production date and shelf life, the most important section is—[Ingredients List and Origin of Raw Materials]."

Qin Lang stretched out his finger and pointed it in mid-air:

"I've tried your plum juice. The smoky flavor of the dried plums and the refreshing taste of the honey are definitely not something that ordinary wholesale products on the market can replicate. When the Food and Drug Administration reviews the qualifications of small workshops, they require the provision of purchase vouchers and traceability of the origin of the core raw materials."

"Brother Lin, where did you get all these top-quality ingredients?"

"If it's loose produce grown by farmers in remote mountain areas without proper pesticide residue testing reports and certificates of origin, they could suffer a great loss if investigated."

When Qin Lang asked about the origin of the ingredients, Lin Fan's expression remained calm.

The farm space was his biggest trump card, and he would never reveal a single word about it to anyone.