David Crabill

Is your kitchen fully-licensed as a commercial kitchen? If you’re just using a basic residential kitchen, then I wasn’t even aware that you could run a home bakery like this without using the cottage food law.

Anyway, usually people start as a cottage food operation and then transition into a commercial bakery, but if your orders are down, then switching to a CFO might make sense. One big reason people choose a CFO over a commercial business is because of the complicated setup, but you’ve already done that.

I think the main reason you might choose to convert to a CFO would mainly be because most things are less complicated. You wouldn’t have to get your kitchen inspected or even need a permit from the health dept (though I have heard that health depts in LA are asking to see product labels before you start). Labeling requirements are significantly minimized and permits/fees would be reduced. However, with the ease comes restrictions like a $20,000 sales cap and the requirement to make only cakes that don’t require refrigeration. That last point might be a deal breaker for you.

Again, I’d be interested to know how and when you initially setup your business.

I agree that it doesn’t make sense from a practical standpoint, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it discrimination. Although your kitchen has been inspected, a commercial kitchen has to adhere to hundreds of other requirements that your kitchen does not. I don’t think the shipping restriction stems from a food safety concern… rather, it’s a concern about the purpose of the cottage food law and the type and size of businesses that should be running with it.

The only way to change the law would be to create a bill that would amend the law and pass it through the legislature in the next session (starting in a couple months). People like yourself can and do take the initiative to get these off the ground, and that’s the way most cottage food laws and amendments have been started. It takes a lot of time and effort, as well as finding a representative who will work with you. An amendment like this could allow shipping for all CFOs in CA.

However, shipping restrictions are not actually built into the law. That recommendation came from the CDPH after the law was enacted, and local health depts have chosen to adopt their recommendation. It is actually possible for a county’s health dept to choose to allow shipping, since that’s not anywhere in the law.

I’m not sure if there’s a definitive answer for this question yet. From what I’ve heard over time, it’s likely that although you can’t ship to the wholesaler (or any other customer), the wholesaler can sell your product by almost any means, including shipping it. It still doesn’t make sense to me why Class B CFOs cannot ship their products within the state. You will need to talk to your health dept for final clarification about what’s allowed in your county/city.

Since it has cream in it, it’s unlikely that it will be allowed. Often fudge is made with evaporated or condensed milk, and it’s possible that a fudge recipe made with cream would not be allowed.

But really, it’s entirely up to your environmental health dept to decide. If they aren’t familiar with the law, then they can seek guidance from someone at the CDPH, who is very familiar with the law (can’t remember her name right now).

You should talk with your health dept to get the proper license. You wouldn’t need to bother with the special licensing for Limited Food Establishments since you wouldn’t be using your home kitchen to produce your items.