How's The Sausage Made? These Folks Really Want To Share The Knowledge

Deena Prichep | NPR | October 3, 2013

With the current bloom of artisanal small-batch producers across the country, you'd think that all you need to start up a new food business is a good idea and a lot of gumption. And for the most part, that's true. But when it comes to artisanal producers working with meat, you also need something else: a Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Points plan. Or, if you will, a HACCP.,,

...And once they've paid (in money or sweat) for these plans, they don't necessarily want to share their trade secrets. But one sausage maker — , of Madison, Wis. — is looking to establish a new model, by developing (via ) an open source HACCP plan template for all to use. "I think this is a large barrier to people entering the market, and if we remove it, we'll see really good products coming out," hopes Underground Meat's Jonny Hunter.

If the project's funding goal is reached, he aims to work with a third party company, possibly the University of Wisconsin, to lay out the process, and then publish the results under a . "The craft is something that takes time, but the knowledge of the safety side is something that should just be open and free." Hunter's mission seems to have struck a nerve in the artisanal meat community — as of this writing, the campaign is nearly three-fourths of the way to its $40,000 goal...