Hi there,

There are actually two law improvements last year that slipped through the cracks!


First off, Hawaii finally implemented their bill from 2024 (HB 2144).

It took over a year for them to create the new cottage food rules, but hey, at least they actually did it (unlike Connecticut a decade ago).

This is actually the first time that Hawaii passed a bill to improve their cottage food law. Their initial law was created directly by the health department back in 2017.

This is a big improvement for Hawaii!

Most notably, it allows indirect sales (through stores), online sales, and shipping. And unlike Michigan's bill, there are no strings attached with this one.

It also allows producers to sell pickled, acidified, and fermented foods.

In fact, their new law feels very similar to a food freedom law in most ways. Once producers take a basic food safety course, they can sell literally wherever and however they want with no permit, inspection, or sales limit.

The main restriction is that producers can only sell nonperishable foods, but they do allow practically all nonperishables.

They don't even specify that sales need to happen in-state, so interstate shipping is likely allowed. Granted, shipping to the rest of the country might not be economically practical, but still, at least they're not prohibiting it.

The end result is that Hawaii now has one of the best "cottage food" laws of any state. It's still not as good as the food freedom laws that are becoming increasingly prevalent, but for a cottage food law, it's excellent!


The other improvement is that Washington DC secretly passed a bill (B26-0025) last year that seemingly nobody knew about.

I say "secretly" because the amendment was buried in a single line of a huge bill, and didn't even get mentioned in the bill summary (which is why I missed it).

But despite it being a simple addition of literally only 5 words, it's actually a significant improvement.

Washington DC now allows residents to wholesale to food establishments, meaning that they can now sell to restaurants.

They have one of the most interesting laws in the country. Perhaps it's no surprise that their law comes with tons of governmental red tape: many limitations, business requirements, and food restrictions. But, once a seller gets past all of that, they can now sell pretty much anywhere.


In my 2025 recap, I said that last year was the 2nd best year ever. As it turns out, last year was even better than I thought! Though still not better than 2021 (close, but not quite).

Forraging ahead,

David