Corinne L Palmieri

Taylor, you can find business in any way you want, including using Facebook in a variety of ways. You can sell cakes as long as you follow all of the rules for Florida’s cottage food law: http://forrager.com/law/florida/

Ed, as far as I know, you would need to use a commercial kitchen to do this. I know it seems impractical but it is the same process that other companies that produce fermented foods use.

Juan, I still haven’t heard about any changes in Miami Dade’s policy, but you should contact their health dept to ask if they allow CFOs now. It would be the same with the other counties you mentioned, but I will say that you must use the laws of whichever county your primary residence is in. You can’t just use any county’s law, unless you move there.

Here’s a blog post I wrote about pricing: http://forrager.com/2016/05/the-price-is-wrong/

I do not think that any cottage food law is sophisticated enough to specify bartering transactions as monetary transactions that count against your sales limit. If it were me, I’d only count monetary transactions against the sales limit, and I’d be highly surprised if ignoring bartering transactions were illegal.

Vanessa, the food safety certificate that Sonia was referring to is probably a food manager certificate. However, CFOs in Florida aren’t required to get food safety training. If you’d like basic training, you can look up a food handler training course.

You don’t need a license from the ag dept, but you may need other licenses to start your business. You will have to check with local officials for the process of starting a business in your area. http://forrager.com/faq/#starting

This website has the most comprehensive statewide directory available: http://forrager.com/cfos/?regions=california

There isn’t any statewide, govt initiative to list all CFOs, but there are a few health depts that have lists of CFOs in their counties. Off the top of my head, I think Sacramento, LA, San Bernardino, Orange, and a few others have a list.

Samantha, you may need licensing and you need to reach out to your county. You probably don’t need insurance unless a sales venue requires it.
http://forrager.com/faq/#starting
http://forrager.com/faq/#insurance

In Florida, cottage foods cannot require refrigeration, so ice creams aren’t allowed (even non-dairy ones). I also would not expect the ag dept to allow non-dairy creamers. In both cases, the water activity level (aW) of the product would be high and probably potentially hazardous (cottage foods are non-PHFs).