David Crabill
@david
active 6 hours, 13 minutes agoForum Replies Created
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Katherine, I also recommend thoroughly reading the Colorado law page, but the short answer is “no”, you do not need a license from the health dept, though you may need other licenses to start your business. http://forrager.com/faq/#starting
I’m not sure either, but I’ve heard that you need to charge at least parish taxes, possibly state too. Have you called the Department of Revenue? http://forrager.com/faq/#sales-tax
If you’re referring to the Home Kitchen Operation law, that was signed by the governor in 2014. This year’s amendment was also signed a couple months ago. Maybe they were just referring to the fact that they haven’t signed an ordinance?
Stephanie, the law page only gives an overview, but it’s best to read the law yourself: http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20ENR/hB/HB1094%20ENR.PDF
Most of the things you’re trying to confirm are correct, so I’ll only point out deviations. The allowed foods list give a general overview: it is not intended to be comprehensive, but you can’t sell anything that’s not fully baked. Contact your health dept for more info about allowed foods and what types of food you can donate elsewhere. You can advertise in any way you’d like.
There may be local licenses you need, and this should give you a basic idea for where to start: http://forrager.com/faq/#starting
Those are some crazy costs for label approval!
How can they not allow you to sell directly outside of San Diego County when the law specifically allows it?
I think the problem with cookie businesses is that they’re often more fun than profitable. If you’re interested in turning it into a money-making business, I’d recommend skipping the markets and trying to focus on direct deliveries of batch orders. And if you do some markets, consider them an advertising expense and then you can’t be disappointed.
It’s easy to get stuck in the kitchen, trying new products, without ever validating customers. Unfortunately, the often repeated “build it and they will come” seems to be completely false — even the most delicious cookies won’t sell themselves. I’ve faced this problem in non-food businesses too… it’s much more fun to create than sell. Get out of the kitchen and start selling! Approach businesses and organizations, learn about events, talk to someone on the street… anything to help validate that there actually is some level of demand for what you’re making.
Yes, you would need to get your kitchen inspected: http://forrager.com/law/north-carolina/
This question has come up a couple times:
http://forrager.com/groups/laws/forum/topic/total-number-of-cfos-nationwide/
http://forrager.com/groups/laws/forum/topic/licensed-kitchens-in-us/Honestly, I still don’t think it would be possible to even generally ballpark the number. The correct answer is probably “more than you think”. If you include the number of illegal home food businesses, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more home businesses than commercial ones.
Generally speaking, for Texas, if it’s not on the allowed list (as specified in the law), then it’s probably not allowed at all. You can check with the health dept about items that aren’t on the allowed list, but they’ll probably say that you need to produce them in a commercial kitchen.
I recently came across this guide, which should give you a pretty good idea for what’s required.
