When you are selling outside of your home (at farmers markets, events, farm stands, etc.), you must display your cottage food permit along with a sign which states “This food is prepared pursuant to N.J.A.C. 8:24-11 in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Department of Health”.

In the “syrups” category above, only sweet sorghum syrup is explicitly allowed.

In addition to the above allowed foods, you may be able to sell other nonperishable foods, but you need to first get approval from the health department.

You can find workplace requirements in the cottage food permit application.

Many cottage food bills were introduced in New Jersey over the course of about 10 years, which were all shut down by Sen. Vitale. A few of them were A 2354, S 671, & A 4580.

New Jersey first started trying to pass a cottage food bill in 2009. The same bill (A1244 / S136) moved from one session to the next from 2009 to 2015, and it passed the assembly in later years.

There are many factors that could prevent a bill from passing, but in NJ there was only one: Senator Vitale, the Chairman for the Senate Health Committee. He single-handedly prevented bills (that otherwise had unanimous support) from being put up for a vote in the senate. Why? Because he did not personally agree with the bills, and he did not want bakeries to face increased competition.

Despite this, 2016 was a breakout year for cottage foods in New Jersey. Vitale’s solo mission to stop cottage foods in his state stirred up considerable controversy and media attention. A new cottage food bill (A3618 / S3292) was written, which was more specific and restrictive than the former ones. It would have allowed the sale of home-baked goods from home or at events, with a $50,000 annual sales limit. Because of the extreme circumstances, the group behind this bill got the former Red Tape Review Commission involved to help resolve the issue with Vitale. However, like the bill before it, this one passed the assembly unanimously, only to be stopped again by Vitale. The bill appeared again in 2018 as A2354 / S671.

After so many failed attempts, supporters (in particular, the New Jersey Home Bakers Association & the Institute for Justice) shifted gears and tried following in the footsteps of Minnesota and Wisconsin, by starting a petition and filing a lawsuit to allow the sale of homemade baked goods. Ultimately, the lawsuit didn’t come to a resolution, but likely influenced the eventual passage of their law.

In 2020, in addition to the lawsuit and yet another bill (A 4580), the health department published proposed rules to allow cottage food businesses. Because Sen. Vitale was concerned that the proposed rules would pass, he added some restrictions to A 4580 and for the first time, he let a cottage food bill come up for a vote in the Senate Health Committee. It easily passed through his committee, but it was not to be, because this time, the cottage food supporters strategically prevented the bill from moving forward, in hopes that the better health department rules would eventually get passed.

Over the course of a long process that lasted over a year, which included dozens of submitted comments and hundreds of official supporters, the health department’s rules were finally passed on July 12th, 2021, and they were published into law on October 4th, 2021.

Sen. Vitale did succeed in preventing legal cottage food businesses in his state for many years, but in the process, he unintentionally created massive awareness about the cottage food industry, which resulted in a ton of interest from home bakers in New Jersey to start their own cottage food businesses.