Carla Reed

Under Ohio’s cottage food law, you can’t sell online or use a commercial kitchen. You need to get a commercial license: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You can make all of the things you described, as long as they don’t require refrigeration. You need to be incorporating fruits like blueberries or bananas into the batter (garnishing with fruits isn’t allowed).

Collette, I’m not exactly sure what your question is. Are you wondering if your home kitchen can be a commercial kitchen, or if you can legally operate under the cottage food law with your home kitchen?

I can tell you that you can’t become commercially licensed from your home kitchen, and you will have to accept the restrictions of the cottage…[Read more]

The law says “A cottage food production operation shall not process acidified foods, low acid canned foods, or potentially hazardous foods.” Beyond that, the state doesn’t really have much published online about this.

The technical rules that Ohio probably follows are described in Part 150 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

However,…[Read more]

Debbie, Ohio is usually pretty flexible with what they allow, but it doesn’t look like they currently allow mustard through their cottage food law. Sorry!

Yes to all your items. Good luck!

So does this mean I can do the hot cocoa mix in a jar? Sorry I didn’t catch where you answered that. I was also curious about marshmallows? Would they be considered a soft candy? And also pretzels that have a chocolate kiss melted on top of them? I would assume that would be covered under chocolate covered item.

Thanks in advance I’m sure I will…[Read more]

The definitions of these terms on the site could be more clear… sorry about that! In Ohio, basically any dry mix is going to work. If it doesn’t have any moisture content then it will be totally shelf stable and safe. “Crisps” means something like an apple crisp or some other baked fruit pastry.

No, I don’t think 4 days is long enough… I think that would fall under the category of a potentially hazardous food, and it would not be considered a cottage food. Maybe switching to evaporated milk would work, because generally cream-filled items are not allowed as cottage foods.

Michele, the product must change hands within Ohio. It is unlikely that you will be able to take advantage of any out-of-state sales.

Marie, probably not. Ohio allows a lot of different types of food, but I believe Wisconsin is the only state that specifically allows applesauce. You should check with the Ag Department for the final word on this, but don’t hold your breath!