David Crabill
@david
active 4 hours, 37 minutes agoForum Replies Created
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Unless you are only selling dried herbs, spice mixes aren’t allowed in Missouri. http://forrager.com/law/missouri/
I believe you need to prepare them in a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercialIt depends on the state. They’re allowed in a number of states.
Dylan, thanks so much for getting in touch with me. I’ll address each point below, but first, I think it’s important to note that Forrager is not intended to be totally comprehensive of all information for starting a CFO. There is plenty of additional info that could go on any given law page, but I’ve just tried to include the essentials so that Forrager is clean and easy to understand. Once someone is interested in starting a CFO after visiting this website, they should pick up the details when communicating with their health and/or ag depts.
1) The descriptions on food items are site-wide, meaning that changing them on one changes them for every state. In addition to donuts, that same disclaimer could be used for cotton candy, popcorn, or a number of other items that could be made on-site. I would hope that this restriction would come up when someone applies for their exemption, but maybe there’s somewhere else on the page or site where I could make it more clear that all items need to be prepared at home? The very first FAQ on this site addresses this point, but most people probably miss that.
2) If I list them as prohibited, then people will ask why. Can you please clarify that for me? Since both chocolate and fudge are considered to be “candy”, I don’t see anything in the law or in the ag dept’s online resources that would indicate that either item is prohibited. At the very least, perhaps you could request a product analysis for those items? I don’t live in SC, but I do specialize in fudge. I don’t use cream, condensed milk, or egg whites in mine… instead, I use evaporated milk and corn syrup. I have had no problems letting it sit out for days on end and I don’t know why it would be considered potentially hazardous or fall out of the scope of Angie Culler-Matthews’ definition: “Candy is defined as: Candies and confectioneries (Confectioneries are candies, delicacies or sweets that have sugar as a principal ingredient,combined with coloring matter and/or flavoring) Candy Coated Nuts, Candy Coated Fruits (would be dried fruits such as raisins) Candy Coated Popcorn, Cotton Candy.” If you do choose to completely prohibit these items, could you update the ag dept’s online resources so I have a reference point (to direct people to) for that prohibition?
3) Please see item #1. I added “like fruit pies” to the notes section under Allowed Foods.
4) That’s a good point — thanks for mentioning it!
Sorry, I don’t have any experience with those. Have you tried asking on the Wilton discussion forums?
In general, yes, you need to follow the same rules. But in this case, I haven’t confirmed that dry mixes are allowed under the cottage food law in Massachusetts, so it might be harder to start that type of business. You can contact the ag dept to determine what they will allow.
The best way to protect a name is through trademarking, but first, I would highly recommend that you don’t worry about that until you are making substantial revenue from your business. Unless you are making waves in your industry, you don’t give people much reason to steal your name. You should be so lucky for people to care about your business (or name) that much!
It’s also worth noting that unless your name includes your personal one, someone’s probably thought of it before. Maybe not, but you might be surprised. Trying Googling it to see if anything comes up.
Registering an LLC won’t truly protect a name, and even trademarking won’t entirely protect it. It can be quite expensive to do the latter, depending on your state. If your business has not gotten off the ground, then I really wouldn’t recommend worrying about this. You first have to prove that you’ll still be in business by the time someone wants to steal it!
Here’s one of my favorite blogs about business naming.
No — pasta sauce needs to be made in a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
Hi Elise, I’ll send you a PM.
No, you need to use a commercial kitchen to produce cheese for sale. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
I’m almost positive you need a permit to do that, but I’m not sure which one. You could do this as a limited food establishment, but you should call the ag dept to see if there’s an easier way.
