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Jennifer, I think you’d just be best to call your health department. Miami-Dade is an exception… most counties are allowing CFOs. I’ve already talked with someone who is interested in amended the law next year… clearly Florida needs it!

No, pickled items are not allowed in Florida. Sorry!

You should be fine with the herbs (although there may be some restrictions on certain medicinal herbs), and the oils might be fine too. You’d be best off to contact the department directly about those items: 850-245-5520

No you do not, but many people recommend getting liability insurance to protect yourself. It just depends on how big your business is, who you’re selling to, and how comfortable you are that nobody would want to sue you. Generally, this kind of insurance costs between $200 – $400 per year, and one common option is the FLIP Program.

You do not need to get registered… you just need to understand the rules and you can start immediately. I don’t know if there’s any way to “prove” that you are a cottage food operation, other than that you may need to get a business license from your county — at least that would show that you are a business.

Sonja, one of the reasons cottage food laws were created was to help entrepreneurs test out their business idea without going through the whole process of becoming a commercial food processor.

You should know that cottage foods cannot be temperature controlled, and therefore prepared soup would not fall under the cottage food law. If you still…[Read more]

Nita, you are not required to get insurance, but many cottage food businesses do get some to protect themselves, just in case anything goes wrong. In Florida, you’re not allowed to do indirect sales like selling to a store so they can resell your products.

You need to be meeting the buyer, face-to-face, and transferring the product and money in-person. As long as you’re doing that, you’re good! So yes, you can take an order agreement by email as long as you meet them.

Nicole, you are not required to get a license from the health department to sell your food, but it’s very reasonable for your farmers market to require a business license. It’s the same basic license any business of any type would get, and it’s usually pretty easy — you would apply with your city or county. It’s also relatively inexpensive……[Read more]