California

I’m not sure if there’s a definitive answer for this question yet. From what I’ve heard over time, it’s likely that although you can’t ship to the wholesaler (or any other customer), the wholesaler can sell your product by almost any means, including shipping it. It still doesn’t make sense to me why Class B CFOs cannot ship their products within the state. You will need to talk to your health dept for final clarification about what’s allowed in your county/city.

I agree that it doesn’t make sense from a practical standpoint, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it discrimination. Although your kitchen has been inspected, a commercial kitchen has to adhere to hundreds of other requirements that your kitchen does not. I don’t think the shipping restriction stems from a food safety concern… rather, it’s a concern about the purpose of the cottage food law and the type and size of businesses that should be running with it.

The only way to change the law would be to create a bill that would amend the law and pass it through the legislature in the next session (starting in a couple months). People like yourself can and do take the initiative to get these off the ground, and that’s the way most cottage food laws and amendments have been started. It takes a lot of time and effort, as well as finding a representative who will work with you. An amendment like this could allow shipping for all CFOs in CA.

However, shipping restrictions are not actually built into the law. That recommendation came from the CDPH after the law was enacted, and local health depts have chosen to adopt their recommendation. It is actually possible for a county’s health dept to choose to allow shipping, since that’s not anywhere in the law.

Christian, if you are a Class B CFO, then you can sell to commercial businesses, and it is my understanding that they can sell your product by the same means that they sell their own. So assuming that the farmers market vendor is a commercial food business (and not simply a farmer that sells produce), then I would think that they could resell your product without repackaging.