Hi there,

Wow, 2021 has got to be the biggest year ever for cottage food law improvements! It seems like something is passing almost every week!

And as you'll see, most of these are not small changes. Many states are upgrading their laws to align with some of the best states out there.

First, a quick recap/update of the bills I mentioned in my last email update:

• Arkansas, New Mexico, Lincoln, NE, and Boston, MA already improved their laws
• Montana's governor signed their bill, so their food freedom law has officially passed. It is already in effect, meaning that Montanans can start selling their homemade food right now!
• Florida's bill is still awaiting the governor's signature. The Florida League of Cities is strongly opposed to this bill and is pressuring the governor to veto it! If you live in Florida and have a few minutes to help, please reach out to Justin Pearson at [email protected]

Okay, on to the new updates:

Oklahoma

This will likely be the biggest improvement of the year for any state. Oklahoma has consistently ranked as having one of the worst cottage food laws in the country.

Now they are going to the opposite end of the spectrum, since they just passed one of the best laws in the country! Their new law goes into effect on November 1st, 2021.

They are calling HB 1032 a food freedom bill, but I'm not sure I would call it that. Rather, I would say that it's a great cottage food law that also allows some types of perishable food sales.

But let's not squabble over nomenclature, and let's appreciate the new law for what it is! Here are some of the most notable improvements:

• Instead of only allowing certain types of baked goods, now it will allow almost any kind of non-perishable food, plus some types of perishable ones
• It will increase the sales limit from $20,000 to $75,000
  
• Instead of allowing only sales from home and at farmers markets, now it will allow all direct sales
• It will also allow shipping and indirect sales of non-perishable foods

Finally, Oklahomans will have a great cottage food law!

Minnesota

MN's initial bill was ultimately added to a larger omnibus bill (SF 958) that has now fully passed and will go into effect on August 1st, 2021. This bill almost didn't pass because some other (non-cottage food) parts of the bill were controversial. Omnibus bills come with pros and cons... fortunately the pros outweighed the cons this time!

Minnesota currently has the lowest sales cap of any state, but that is changing this year! The new law will raise the sales cap from $18,000 to $78,000.

MN also has a simpler exemption for those who sell less than $5,000 of products per year. This bill maintains the $5k exemption, but will continuously increase it to keep up with inflation.

This bill also changes a couple labeling requirements, and allows people to sell certain types of homemade pet treats. Overall, it's a great improvement to MN's current law.

Alabama

Alabama just passed a huge improvement (SB 160)  to their cottage food law. This bill will go into effect on August 1st, 2021.

First, it will allow most non-perishable foods, instead of only baked goods, jams/jellies, dried herbs, and candies.

It will also remove the $20,000 sales limit. Alabama will join the 30 other states that have no sales limit.

Finally, it will allow online sales and in-state shipping of products. Alabama will no longer be categorized on Forrager as one of the more restrictive states!

Illinois

SB 2007, AKA the "Home-To-Market Act", just passed both Houses and is now waiting for the governor's signature. If signed, it would go into effect on January 1st, 2022.

This would be a massive improvement to Illinois' existing law, in that it would allow most types of direct sales in the state (their current law only allows sales from farmers markets).

This bill does add some restrictions and government oversight, like a paid registration process, but overall, I think the benefits are easily worth the tradeoffs.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin seems to need lawsuits to enable the sale cottage foods, but they're working! They just won another lawsuit.

Basically, the 2017 lawsuit (against the state ag dept) allowed people in the state to sell non-perishable baked goods. The ag dept didn't agree with that ruling, and created an arbitrary rule that only baked goods that contain flour would be allowed. Quite frankly, it was ridiculous!

Last month, a judge once again sided with cottage food advocates, and ruled that the ag dept had no right to limit baked goods sales to just those that contain flour.

The plaintiffs are continuing to work on another lawsuit that would allow more than just baked goods to be sold.

Utah

This is a bill I initially missed, but it's a big one! It passed back in March, and went into effect last month.

HB 94 allows Utah residents to sell homemade meals, similar to California's AB 626 from 2019. Similar to CA, Utah is calling these businesses "microenterprise home kitchens".

Most notably, Utah's MEHKO law doesn't suffer from California's horrible opt-in limitation. For that reason, Utah's law is much better than CA's.

Granted, there are still plenty of requirements and restrictions for these mini restaurants, but when combined with Utah's existing food freedom law, I'd say that Utah has now overtaken Wyoming as the most favorable state for selling homemade food.

Utah is now the first state in the nation that allows someone to sell virtually any type of homemade food, one way or another!


Phew! I told you there were a lot! And there are a lot of bills that are still in the works too.

I think you'll agree that it's exciting to see such major changes across the country. Our little cottage food industry is growing fast!*

Until next week,
David

* P.S. Our industry's growth makes me think of my son Ray, who just turned 2 last week. He is changing all the time, and he's not so little anymore! :)