Dr David A French, thermal process authority

Some counties in some states (not sure about PA) offer temporary event permits that allow someone to sell certain types of homemade food for a short period of time. If your county (ag or health dept) doesn’t offer that, then you would need to setup yourself as a Limited Food Establishment: http://forrager.com/law/pennsylvania/

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet heard about the specific requirements in PA. Here is some general info about sales tax: http://forrager.com/faq/#sales-tax

You will need to pay yearly income taxes, as you would with any business. I believe most exemptions revolve around sales tax, and your ag dept might be able to guide you to the correct dept for tax info.

You should talk with your health dept to get the proper license. You wouldn’t need to bother with the special licensing for Limited Food Establishments since you wouldn’t be using your home kitchen to produce your items.

That sentence actually refers to licensing requirements from a health or ag dept, which you don’t need. You always need to abide by any local or general business requirements, which could be explained better on the site. Here’s some info about that: http://forrager.com/faq/#starting

You should call Heath at the ag dept at 804-786-1164, and he should be able to clear up most of your questions. You can probably make buttercream frosting, but I’m not sure about that, since sometimes depts disallow it. I don’t think you need any licensing from the ag dept, but you still need to call your local authorities to determine if you need…[Read more]

No — drinks are not allowed under the cottage food laws. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You can sell dry tea with the cottage food law, but you can’t sell homemade brewed tea. If you want to sell (non-homemade) brewed tea outside of your home, you’d need a commercial license: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You should call your ag dept to make sure there aren’t any exemptions you can take advantage of.

No, it wasn’t passed and there is still no cottage food law in New Jersey.

You need a commercial license, which will free you from almost all of the limitations you’re concerned about: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You do need to talk to your health dept and I think Etsy is a good place to start online. However, local sales are usually an easier starting point for getting a food business off the ground.

Commercial food processing laws are fairly complicated and often county-specific. You should direct your questions to your local health dept. Once you get your business setup, you will be able to sell in most places with relatively few restrictions.

You will probably still need a business license if your county requires it. However, using the cottage food law will help you bypass a lot of the strict requirements from the health dept, like inspections. I’m not entirely sure if they will allow buttercream frosting, though… check with your ag dept.