David Crabill
@david
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It’s a little hard to notice, but Hawaii is also gray on the map. Also, any orange state might as well be gray for any non-farmer. And some states are very restrictive… for instance, Wisconsin’s law only allows canned goods, and Illinois’ law is only useful to someone who sells at farmers markets. So despite appearances, New Jersey isn’t the only state that isn’t doing a good job of allowing sales of homemade food. There is some level of resistance to it in nearly every state.
Since the bill didn’t pass in 2014, it needs to start over and be reintroduced in the next session, or a brand new bill needs to be introduced. Here is some info about passing a bill: http://forrager.com/2015/05/lobbying-amending-cottage-food-law/
Buttercream frosting is almost always safe, but some states and health depts still don’t allow it. Usually this is because they prohibit all uncooked dairy products in cottage foods, even though butter is perfectly safe when left unrefrigerated. So in this instance, I’d say it’s not a matter of whether or not it is perishable, but rather that it falls under the blanket “dairy” prohibition and is then not allowed. If it isn’t specifically listed as allowed, you need to contact your health or ag dept to determine if they will allow it.
If you are taking a commercially-produced food item and altering it in any way, you are then processing it, which must be done in a commercial kitchen. You can resell some types of commercially-prepackaged items without needing a commercial kitchen, but that doesn’t sound like it would apply in this case. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
You need to use a commercial kitchen. You can build one in your home, but that can be very expensive. You will need to talk to the health dept about the requirements for commercial kitchens. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
You should contact the ag dept about selling the teas and syrups… I don’t think you can sell them from your office. I believe you can only sell them at certain public markets and stores, so you might need to produce them in a commercial kitchen to sell them at your office.
I’m not familiar with the laws for selling deodorant, and you can try contacting the health dept about that.
Usually the two factors working against cottage food laws are health depts and existing businesses. Many health depts don’t like them because they consider food produced in an unregulated (home) environment to be a potential hazard to the public health that they can’t control. Existing businesses obviously lobby against them for fear of increased competition from bakers who don’t have to spend money for an expensive, inspected commercial food production facility, which they are required to use.
I’d recommend contacting the sales tax division in Pueblo to see what you should be charging. Here’s some generic info about sales tax: http://forrager.com/faq/#sales-tax
Here is some basic info about starting your business: http://forrager.com/faq/#starting
My “advice”, if you will, is to start out small and don’t get too caught up in trying to get everything perfect before starting. No matter how detailed a business plan, businesses seem to take on a life of their own once they get going.
Sorry I didn’t see this sooner, Wanda! Try entering “Spiro, OK”, and that should work.
That wouldn’t fall under a cottage food law since you’re not selling it. I think that, technically, you would need to use a commercial kitchen, but most of the people who do this type of charity, like the Burrito Riders, don’t bother.
CO’s health dept has chosen not to include donuts on their allowed list, which means they’re probably not allowed unless they’re baked donuts. I don’t think jam, jelly, or frosting would be an issue… I believe that anything fried would not be allowed. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
