Selling food from home

Dear friends and respected members.
I am planning to sell home based cooked food. Nothing fancy just me and my wide are going to cook food and sell it to known friends and contacts. Do I need any special license or any formalities to do this ? I am an IT employee and working in KL for 3 plus years now . Due to some recent hospital bills , has left me with debts. I plan to start another source of income and looking for the legal procedures for the same. Any advice is much appreciated

I do not know the legal status for you to sell food from home, but since it's mostly to friends then I doubt anyone is going to make a big thing out of it.

Here in Indonesia, we know a few people who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic and they have turned to selling home-cooked food. They often send us free samples in the beginning and if we like it we order often.

Good to hear that you are working hard to get things fixed, things will work well for you.
No, you do not need any legal documents since you are selling only to your friends & your contacts.
Certainly you will be there!

Ok, as I know the sellers I buy from online dont have any special licence though some are larger now and have a registered business.

Two things to try. The online shopping portal Carousell.com will promote your food for free, something they have been offering since covid started because many people went into cooking at home after losing their jobs. Second is Shopee, you can list food there too and as I know they wont ask for any license. Register an account and look around for any restrictions. Also, you can sell on Grab Food and Panda.

The pandemic has made home cooks of all kinds of people and there are many opportunities. I dont know what you want to sell, like ready to eat hot dishes or what, but cookies and anything chocolate are always popular. For these kinds of things you need pretty airtight packaging, a name, labels, a professional way of everything.

Do some research on the portals and see whats offered, prices, etc. I think people are also selling on facebook and instagram but you have to play around to dodge paying fees as a seller of a commercial item.

A critical thing though. In Malaysia, before selling food commercially you have to take a food handling course from the govt and also take a shot for typhoid. These are handled through the city council that serves your address. This is critical because its too easy to spread bacteria and virus and even if you ignored forming a business, you shouldnt ignore keeping people safe despite poor restaurant hygiene throughout the country--and that would certainly include your friends and contacts if thats all you will sell to. Second critical thing is that you will need halal certification, easy to get, so that Muslims can buy from you. You dont need the cert if a Muslim does the cooking but I would get it anyway to reassure people.