David Crabill

That’s great to hear, Krystle. Sometimes the health dept just doesn’t like the laws the way they are written. But it could also be that they thought they knew what they were talking about and didn’t want to admit that they were wrong. I’m glad they finally chose to allow it.

As you know, to sell in restaurants you can’t operate under the cottage food law. You should need a commercial food processor license, which requires you to use a commercial kitchen. Many large churches have kitchens that are inspected by the health dept, but you will need to check to make sure your church has a commercial kitchen. You need to talk to the health dept to figure out everything you need.

I don’t know if it will be legal. The requirements for being a personal chef vary greatly among areas… you should contact your health dept to get accurate advice.

Because of the licensing requirements that some venues have, they wouldn’t be able to serve your homemade cake and there wouldn’t be a way to get around it, aside from using a different venue. Sometimes venues will allow a homemade cake, but they’re doing so illegally. The language in the law literally states that food establishments cannot serve something that was made in a home. If they do not have any ideas about how to allow your cake, then likely none exist.

Jess, I understand your concerns and I know it’s frustrating. You can imagine how all of the small local bakeries felt when the cottage food law got passed… what was the point of them going thru all the setup effort a year or two ago?

In addition to the CFOs that are bending the cottage food law, there are many many more that are ignoring the law altogether. They sell PHFs without any attempt to get licensed, and that practice is common throughout the US.

I think you can see that going after a few CFOs to get them shut down won’t change much and won’t help your business. And it probably wouldn’t work anyway, since the health dept is usually super busy. In fact, if you started operating illegally, it’s very very likely that the health dept would never catch you unless pressured to do so. When Mark Stambler (who helped start the law) got a writeup in the newspaper and got shut down, I don’t think it was because the health dept thought his business was unsafe or should be shut down — it was because if they didn’t shut him down, then they would be publicly seen as not doing their job correctly.

So is it worth it to follow the law and restrict your business in doing so? It’s your business and you need to be the judge, but I’ll say that by following the law, you protect yourself. If you find yourself in court someday (and I hope you never do), you’ll be standing on much firmer ground as a legal business rather than an illegal one. Do you want the one sale that goes wrong be one that happens via shipping? But while it’s true that most people adhere to laws only due to fears of loss, the primary reason I would choose to follow the law is based on principle, not fear. I know that there will never be enough policemen to micromanage people into doing what’s expected of them.

By the way, it’s interesting to see how you’re using Etsy while still following the cottage food law. Would you mind sharing what percentage of new customers you get from people finding you on Etsy?