Hi there,

Congrats to New Hampshire, which passed a record 6 bills this year! And almost all of them are already in effect.

Granted, many of them are simple bills, but they combine into a substantial improvement.

Mainly I want to focus on the three big changes, two of which are firsts for our industry:


1) No home address required

Like many other states, producers in New Hampshire no longer have to put their home address on labels, thanks to HB 304.

But unlike many states, producers don't need to get a special permit number. The only address they need to include on labels is an email address.


2) QR codes on labels

HB 304 also allows producers to replace ingredients on labels with a QR code or website link, in certain cases. I've heard this idea many times before, but New Hampshire is the first to implement it.

The QR code or link would take the consumer to a webpage where they could see the full list of ingredients.

There are two main benefits to this. The most obvious benefit is that it will save space on labels. People often ask me how to individually label a cake pop when they have to include all of the ingredients (and sub-ingredients)*. A QR code can be less than 1/2"x1/2" in size and still be perfectly functional.

But another major benefit of this is that it can simplify label creation and printing. There are many instances where this could be helpful. For instance:

• You sell berry muffins, but you shift which berries are in the muffins based on seasonal availability
• You go to the store and find that the flour you normally use is out of stock, so you buy another brand instead
• You get feedback from customers and tweak your recipe to be even better

In all of those cases, normally you'd have to print out brand new labels each time you tweak a product. But with this law, someone could simply put a QR code on their pre-printed labels instead, and then update the ingredients on the webpage when needed.

The law doesn't say that the webpage only needs to show one product's ingredient info, so theoretically a producer could simplify things even more by having only one QR code and listing all products and their respective ingredients on the same webpage.

Of course, it's easy to see why a health official would be very concerned about a law like this. Let's say there's an issue with a product that was produced a few months ago. The official could use the QR code to go to the ingredient webpage, but wouldn't know whether the producer had changed the page since the product was produced.

And for that reason, this new law comes with some pretty severe restrictions. Most importantly, QR codes can only be used for sales from home and at farm stands. All other sales (at events, through stores, online, etc) cannot use them. Also, if a QR code is used, the ingredients need to be printed and displayed at the point of sale. And understandably, allergens always need to be individually listed on labels.

So overall, I'd say that New Hampshire is dipping their toe into the water of this new labeling model, rather than jumping fully in. It will be interesting to see if other states follow suit.


3) Occasional food establishments

I'd say this is the most interesting change of all, and it's definitely the first time I've seen a state do it.

HB 371 allows people to sell ANY type of food once per week without a license, as long as the customer picks up from the producer's home.

What this means is that someone could run a takeout micro-restaurant from their home one day per week (or up to 4 days in a 28-day period) without any licensing or labeling requirements whatsoever.

This is such a significant change that I added a whole new law page on Forrager to recognize it.

Granted, this would only fit a very specific business model. Producers using this law cannot deliver their products or sell anywhere beyond their home, and they can only sell a few times per month.

Even still, the fact that there are no restricted food products, no licensing or labeling requirements, and no other sales limitations is a bit hard to believe, but I love the fact that they are removing almost all red tape for people who want to sell food to their neighbors occasionally.


Wow, I'm already 700+ words into this newsletter, and I've only talked about 2 of NH's 6 bills! So let's cover the rest briefly:

• HB 150 lets producers use commercial kitchen equipment, as long as they clean it properly.
• HB 307 lets producers use parts of their home other than their home kitchen, such as someone who uses their dining room for decorating. Surely this is something that many producers have already been doing, they're just making it officially legal.
• HB 505 will let producers sell freeze dried foods. It will go into effect in November.
• HB 279 creates a committee to review the approval process for homemade foods. The committee's findings could potentially lead to another bill next year that would make the approval process easier.

That's a lot of cottage food bills! I can't recall a time when a state even passed more than 2 bills, let alone 6!

Check out the updates on New Hampshire's cottage food law and occasional food law pages


Forraging ahead,

David


* If you're wanting to know the answer to this: when it comes to individually labeling small items, usually I recommend putting the label on a tag that is attached to the item with a string. Another option is putting it on a sticker that wraps around the item (like the cake pop stick) and folds back onto itself.