Cindy Loeffler

You cannot make fillings that require refrigeration, and fillings with butter are not automatically allowed. But you can make fillings that contain butter IF you get the recipe approved, or if you use a pre-approved recipe. Here’s more info: https://portal.ct.gov/DCP/Food-and-Standards-Division/Cottage-Food/Buttercream-Frostings

I don’t know a ton about it, but from what I have gathered from talking to people:

• It’s not typically practical to offer free shipping
• It might be more lucrative to split it into two fees. For instance, a shipping fee and a separate handling fees. Experiments have showed that customers are willing to pay more when the fees are split.
• For many…

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Thanks for making me aware of that law text. I wasn’t aware of it and it is different from MO’s previous cottage food law. I agree that under that rule, you should be able to sell muesli from a stand. You probably wouldn’t be able to sell it directly from your home, or deliver, or sell online, etc. You should contact the health dept again with…[Read more]

I’d recommend checking with your local ag dept. Because it’s generally low-risk, sometimes there are special rules that allow someone to sell home-brewed coffee, or even coffee that’s brewed on-site (like at a market). This likely would not fall under the regulations for PA’s limited food establishments. If the ag dept requires a permit to do…[Read more]

I’m not sure. I’d recommend contact the ag dept and see what they say. There’s a pretty good chance that they will allow them. If they don’t, remind them that there is also a law for domestic kitchens, which has a more rigorous application process, plus a home inspection. They might allow these items if you go through that process.

Unfortunately that would not be allowed. If you want customers to be able to enjoy your baked goods with iced tea, the easiest way is to buy bottles from the store and resell them at your booth. Check with your market manager to see if there’s a reseller’s permit required to do so. To sell your own iced tea, you’d need to make it in a commercial kitchen.

You can sell granola with a cottage food business or a domestic kitchen. The domestic kitchen is a bit harder to implement. I’d recommend you start with a cottage food business, which does not require you to get a permit from the health or ag dept. You might need to get a business license from your local area, but it should be very simple to…[Read more]

Katherine, most people get a DBA (doing business as), which is the name that you would use when applying for your business license. Usually that happens through your local area. As long as someone else in your area isn’t using the name, you should be able to use it. It would be possible for multiple businesses in Iowa to have the same name. If you…[Read more]

Thanks so much for sharing this info, Lana!

Maybe. It depends on where you live and what the zoning laws for your area are. Here’s some more info: https://forrager.com/starting-cottage-food-operation-zoning/

They are separate, so you can make $40k total. And please note that the $20k for farm direct is only for acidified foods, like pickles and salsas. There is no limit for other things you sell under the farm direct bill.

So glad you found the answer! I was going to say that it was really something that needed to be answered by the department itself.

Did you see anywhere that indicates that they would not be allowed? I would think they’d be fine to use, as long as the resulting product is nonperishable.

Elizabeth, the last lesson in my free mini course covers some of this. But basically, yes you need to pay income taxes at tax time. No matter how much you make, you have to report it as income. I personally use TurboTax to file my taxes, but most tax software will be able to handle business income.

The rules get fuzzy when it comes to things with alcohol and items with health benefits. It would probably be best to directly contact the health dept about this.

Hi Pam, I did a poor job promoting the forums on this site. I’m currently making technical changes that should improve that over time, and make people more aware of them.

To answer this question, probably the best option is to use the Farm Direct Bill, but that requires someone to grow the produce themselves.

Otherwise, I’m not sure if…[Read more]