Florida

Agnes, I don’t like being the bearer of bad news, but I have to be honest by saying that aside from you moving to a another county, or getting the law in Miami-Dade changed, there is not a way for you to legally sell your homemade goods. You need a license and need to be making your items in a commercial kitchen, unless you want to run your business under-the-table, which many startup bakers do.

Miami-Dade is the only county I know of (so far) that doesn’t allow cottage food operations. For you to operate in another county, you do need to be living there, so you would not be able to use a friend’s kitchen in another county.

You would not be able to sell there, because of their policy.

Susy, that’s all correct as far as I know. I haven’t heard anything different.

Yes, if you have a commercial license from the health dept, you’d be relatively unrestricted.

One thing that complicates things is that CFOs do not need a permit from the ag dept, so most probably don’t check with the ag dept before starting their business. But from what I’ve heard, in Miami-Dade a CFO would get stopped if an inspector walked through the market.

It is actually what the law doesn’t state that matters. It doesn’t say that ag depts can’t prohibit CFOs, so in Miami-Dade’s case, they created a local ordinance to prohibit them. It should be written somewhere in the county’s books.