Florida

A while back, I called the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and spoke with Melissa Durkin (who has since moved to another position).

At the time, she said that, officially, there is nothing in Florida’s cottage-food law specifically prohibiting shipping out of state – only that the current law (contrary to the past) now allows shipping.

When I asked her whether there were FDA (i.e. interstate commerce) considerations or, at least local regulations in the states to which one would be shipping, she did not have an answer that could be documented, but said that, in her opinion, cottage food is such a small percentage of the many, many things that get shipped every day that she didn’t believe anyone would bother with the time and work necessary to look into it (i.e. they have bigger fish to fry).

That said, it would still be good if we could get a more definitive answer and it is probably best to look up the laws in the state(s) to which you may be shipping. Most probably don’t even address the issue, but places like California (where there seem to be laws and/or taxes for even the minutest details) may prohibit, regulate or limit incoming shipments.

It’s a gray area to be sure. All we know for sure is that FL, AR, and OK allow interstate shipping. So shipping between those states should be allowed.