David Crabill

I have heard that CO requires all of it’s CFOs to be sole proprietorships, and if so, it is the only state to do so.

If that’s not true, then you probably already have a lot of what you need to get started. You’ll need to check again with your local depts to see if any food-specific permits are required, as well as make sure your business is abiding by zoning requirements.

Even if you have to be a sole proprietorship, you might be able to start a partnership that’s separate from your LLC and do this from your home kitchen.

If you can legally operate from home, you still need to make labels with all the ingredients listed. However, with event cakes, the cake doesn’t need to be boxed and the label can be given to the buyer separately.

For one, some states allow homemade extract to be sold under their cottage food law. But the concept of “sell the bottle” or “sell the plate” isn’t going to fly with any ag/health dept. If that’s all you’re selling, then you don’t need to put anything in it. Even though your operation is small, you are engaging in commerce so it is a business, and your business needs to follow the same rules as other food businesses.

As far as I know, having a pet anywhere in your home prohibits you from being able to sell homemade food. Your dog can never enter the house. I believe the ruling is that pets cannot be “in the building” of any business that manufactures food for sale.

You should be using your home’s kitchen… if you wanted to build or use a separate kitchen on your property, then I think you’d need to make that a commercial kitchen, which would be pretty complicated/expensive: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You probably can’t sell pet treats: http://forrager.com/faq/#pet-food

Usually cottage food businesses use standard home appliances (some states prohibit commercial equipment), but it doesn’t look like Oregon has rules about that.

Most products can be measured with a basic scale, which may have to be tested by a state dept.

For some types of products, you might be able to bypass some restrictions with the Farm Direct Bill: http://forrager.com/law/oregon-farm-direct/

You’ll need to speak your ag dept to get exact details about everything.

I’m not sure if you need some sort of certification for gluten free labeling, though I do know that there are certain quantities that you need to stay under. By making this health claim, you need to place a nutrition facts panel on your label, which is an extra expense and process.

Labeling a product as organic can be very complicated and expensive, and I don’t know of any exemption: http://forrager.com/faq/#organic

Thanks for the response and that’s good to know, though it is possible to make salsa in a way that is non-potentially hazardous. It sounds like the dept is generally staying away from salsas at this time, which are known (along with other canned vegetables) to be one of the most risky cottage foods.