David Crabill

From my reading of their guide, I’d say that it’s unlikely that extracts are allowed. There are definitely restrictions on selling most anything that is flavored with alcohol (except candy which can contain 5% or less). However, they don’t clearly state that an extract is prohibited. My guess is that to sell an extract, you’d need a separate…[Read more]

I haven’t seen anything that clearly states that you can’t sell these things from home (although it is pretty clear that you couldn’t sell cut fruit that is covered in chocolate or caramel). Ultimately, it might be up to your local health dept official to decide, based on their interpretation of the law. Marcia, could you let us know where you’re…[Read more]

That’s awesome! An amazing opportunity for sure. Unfortunately you won’t be able to use your home kitchen to produce the cupcakes. But you’re in the fortunate position of having a commercial kitchen at your disposal! Come to an agreement with the restaurant owner, perhaps using the kitchen in off hours. You will need to get a permit from the…[Read more]

Assuming your pudding has dairy and/or eggs in it, no, it would not be allowed under IL’s cottage food law. You’d need to produce it in a commercial kitchen. See the notes below the allowed foods list: https://forrager.com/law/illinois/#food

I’m not familiar enough with the standard of definition for jams and jellies to verify whether your product would be allowed, but if you’d like to dig through the legalese to determine whether your product would be allowed, here it is: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=150

Pam, there was a time a few years back when I wasn’t very active on here. But these days, I’ll make sure that any post receives a reply. I don’t see any forum posts from you where you’ve asked a cottage food question. You did reply to someone about a year ago, and I did respond to that back then. If you have any questions, please let me know!

I will start by saying that I don’t fully know. But based on this page, which states that you can sell non-PHF candy “in individual-sized portions for immediate consumption only”, my guess is that the exemption is only for sales at an event, where the individually-wrapped candy is intended to be consumed immediately after a sale. Naturally that…[Read more]

The only way to legally sell meat empanadas is to use a commercial kitchen and get licensed with the health dept. Most likely you would rent someone else’s at an hourly rate. Here’s some more info about finding a commercial kitchen: https://forrager.com/faq/#commercial-kitchen

Although she can’t sell meat empanadas from home, she should be able to sell homemade fruit empanadas.