Maine has had their “home food manufacturing” law in place since 1980, and it is still being used today. Although this law was created long before modern cottage food laws became popular, it is quite flexible and allows producers to sell many types of homemade food.

To sell homemade food, producers need to get a license and get their home kitchen inspected. Most types of shelf-stable products are allowed, but some items (like pickles and chocolate sauces) need to be tested and approved before they can be sold. Once a producer has their license, they have a lot of flexibility: they can sell at any venue and there is no sales limit.

Maine’s state law is one of the better cottage food laws in the country, but at least sixteen towns in in the state (the first being Sedgwick) have taken it a step farther — they have removed regulations from all local foods that are directly sold. Read more about it here and here.

In 2015, a couple “food freedom” bills were considered, but they did not pass. One of them (LD 925) was a more typical food freedom bill, in that it would have allowed the sale of any type of food, as long as it was sold directly at the producer’s home or at a social event. The other (LD 783) proposed to add the “Right To Food” as a constitutional amendment, which would have laid the groundwork for preventing regulation of homemade food. LD 783 was also considered in 2016, and it once again did not pass.