David Crabill

I would recommend talking with the health dept about what they’d be okay with. Some officials are more strict than others.

Also, I’ll add that despite the ridiculous requirement (IMHO) of having a startup submit every possible label variation before they’ve even started their business, in my experience most people do tweak their recipes…[Read more]

I wonder if you could get a used one. Also I just checked WebstaurantStore and they have one for $100: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/14309/legal-for-trade-scales.html?order=price_asc

Wow that’s surprising that they’re that strict! I have never looked into NTEP scales, so I’d be interested to hear what you learn.

No, quiches would need to be produced in a commercial kitchen. Eggs can only be used in baked goods that don’t require refrigeration.

Actually I think you will find that setting a schedule will increase your business! With bread it’s pretty easy, because people typically want bread on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Most cottage bread bakers choose a pickup/delivery day of the week, and then have the same baking schedule every week. It’s your business, you make the rules……[Read more]

Yes, many people do this. Usually the barriers to entry for selling non-food items are lower. You could likely do it under the same general business license that you get for your cottage food business, but you might need a different sellers permit depending on what you’re selling. Also the sales tax requirements are likely different. I’m not…[Read more]

Hi Susan, here’s the tutorial: https://forrager.com/learn/website/

It’s a gray area to be sure. All we know for sure is that FL, AR, and OK allow interstate shipping. So shipping between those states should be allowed.

In general, I think an LLC is overkill for most cottage food businesses. You can read more here: https://forrager.com/faq/#llc

Jonathan, you can sell perishable baked goods at farmers markets by producing them in a commercial kitchen and getting a different license from the health department.

There is no legal way to sell them from home, or to sell homemade perishable baked goods, except for building a commercial kitchen on your property (which is very complex and costly…[Read more]

Nunuz, I think it’s important to know that most of this kind of info can’t be found online. You need to contact your health dept, the planning division, etc and wait for them to get back to you. It usually takes quite a bit of patience.

However, generally speaking, in addition to the CFO permit you will likely need a business license, and yes…[Read more]

As Keith referenced, Florida updated its cottage food law in 2021, and now localities (like Miami Dade) can’t prohibit cottage food businesses.

When processed correctly, hot sauce is perfectly safe. But if best canning practices are not followed, canned goods could potentially be deadly. That’s why homemade acid and acidified foods like hot sauce are not allowed in many states, although the risk is quite low.
Instead, the ag/health dept will require you to use a commercial kitchen and go…[Read more]

Yes definitely! All non-perishable candies and confections are allowed in Arkansas.

Here is some info about that: https://forrager.com/faq/#repackaging
Basically, yes you can do this with unwrapped candy. You mentioned “variety”… the variety resulting from combining candies should be enough of a change for you to not worry about copyright. And I’d also consider how branded the product is in the first place. If it’s a generic…[Read more]

Putting cake mix on the label is definitely not sufficient. You need to copy the ingredients from the box to put on your label.

Tennessee is one of the only states that doesn’t seem to require things to be individually packaged. But I do think they’d prefer individual packaging where that’s reasonable or expected. A bulk container situation would…[Read more]

You can sell fresh, uncut produce without needing any permit. The only restriction, to my knowledge, are sprouts… those are regulated. You could sell under your LLC but you likely don’t have to.

I can’t say that I’ve researched it, but I suspect that many of those laws (I live in CA, so I’ve seen the effects of some of them) would only apply to producers of a certain size.

On top of that, I find that many cottage food producers choose to use the environmentally-friendly packaging regardless, to give their products a higher perceived…[Read more]