Amanda_Olsen

No, I haven’t heard anything.

Cara, the health dept should know the rules since they are the dept that is in charge of enforcing them. If they can’t give you an answer, then there may not be one.

I don’t know of anyone who has compiled a list of counties, but perhaps some health dept has one. Try calling up Cook County and seeing if they know more. If you can’t find a list, it’s possible that one doesn’t exist. If you spend the time to create one by contacting every county’s health dept, I’d be happy to incorporate it into the law page so…[Read more]

Can anyone tell me which counties we can operate as a home baker to sell baked goods from home? Im new to this and new to Illinois as well and not sure where to find out which counties allow this. Thank you

I’m not sure if that is allowed under the cottage food law. The law recently changed to give health depts the ability to allow other types of nonperishable foods, so I recommend that you ask your health dept. If you want to pop the popcorn at the market, you wouldn’t be able to use the cottage food law.

It would not be legal. Aside from the fact that your box sale likely wouldn’t sell well without the cookies (the box is not really what you’re selling), typically food laws place the same requirements on publicly-available foods, regardless of whether there is a charge for them or not.

I don’t think that spice blends are allowed, but I’m not completely sure, since the law recently changed. If you could sell them, it would only be at farmers markets. You can contact the health dept to check.

No — to sell pet food in Illinois, you need to use an approved facility, and you need to contact the ag dept.

NJ doesn’t have any cottage food rules, exemptions, etc. Since the doughnuts will be made in a commercial kitchen, this should be possible, but I’m not sure of the specific rules. You will still need to label them (probably in the commercial kitchen), get a food business license, etc. Since you are not actually preparing the food, and the baker…[Read more]