Hi there,

After almost a year and a half of effort, South Carolina has now improved their cottage food law!

And wow, what an improvement it is.

This new bill (S 506) already took effect (on May 23rd), so people are now using it. It's the first cottage food bill to go into effect this year.

So what changed? A LOT.

South Carolina used to have a pretty basic law. It had the "Okay" label on Forrager's map for almost a decade. That means that it wasn't bad, and it wasn't great.

Well... it's great now! It's now listed as one of the 6 best states on Forrager's map.*

Here are the main improvements to South Carolina's law:

• Huge expansion of allowed foods
  • They went from allowing only nonperishable "candy & baked goods" to now allowing all nonperishable foods
• Allow indirect sales to retail & grocery stores
• Allow online sales and shipping
  • It's not yet clear if shipping interstate is allowed
• Give producers ability to remove their home address from labels

Those four improvements provide a pretty good snapshot** of the recent trends in cottage food bills.

But most states focus on one or two at a time. South Carolina somehow managed to tackle all four at once!

And they somehow managed to do it without adding any red tape. Producers still don't need to get a permit or inspection from the health department, or take a food safety training course.

As for bills/improvements in other states, I have a mid-year cottage food update coming your way soon. Look for that in the coming weeks!

Until next week,
David


* SC's current standing on the map could ratchet down a little bit if the health department clarifies/restricts some things that are currently ambiguous. But I don't know if/when that will happen, and no matter what minor changes may come, SC unambiguously has a great cottage food law.

** There is a 5th trend that's not on the list above. Many states are also working to increase/eliminate their sales limit. But it's not something South Carolina needed to focus on, since they already removed their (very low) $15k sales limit back in 2018.