David Crabill

The limit isn’t actively regulated, but a health or ag dept could shut down an operation if it was clear that they were making too much. I’d say it’s more self-regulated, in that people know if they make more than $15K then they’re doing something illegal. That limitation is baked right into Florida’s law, so an amendment to the law would need to be passed for it to change.

Each state with a law has their own version, and many states don’t call it a cottage food law. This site is going to be your best bet if you want an updated list of the states that allow some form of homemade food sales. I don’t know of any other updated list that exists. Please know that the map doesn’t necessarily show states that have laws; it shows states that allow people to sell homemade food in some form, and that form is usually defined by a law. http://forrager.com/laws/

You wouldn’t be using this cottage food law for that kind of business. I’m not sure what you need, but your health dept should know.

As far as I know, owning a smoothie shop will require you to setup a commercial kitchen, with inspections from the health dept. As long as you’re going to do all of that, you might as well also use it for making your dried fruit. I don’t think your shop can sell homemade goods.

I really don’t know. My guess is that the added processing would require you to make it in a commercial kitchen. I doubt you’ll be able to find specific info about creamed honey online — you should just talk to the dept.

One thing that complicates things is that CFOs do not need a permit from the ag dept, so most probably don’t check with the ag dept before starting their business. But from what I’ve heard, in Miami-Dade a CFO would get stopped if an inspector walked through the market.

It is actually what the law doesn’t state that matters. It doesn’t say that ag depts can’t prohibit CFOs, so in Miami-Dade’s case, they created a local ordinance to prohibit them. It should be written somewhere in the county’s books.