David Crabill

Pam, there was a time a few years back when I wasn’t very active on here. But these days, I’ll make sure that any post receives a reply. I don’t see any forum posts from you where you’ve asked a cottage food question. You did reply to someone about a year ago, and I did respond to that back then. If you have any questions, please let me know!

The only way to legally sell meat empanadas is to use a commercial kitchen and get licensed with the health dept. Most likely you would rent someone else’s at an hourly rate. Here’s some more info about finding a commercial kitchen: https://forrager.com/faq/#commercial-kitchen

I’m not aware of a restriction against buttercream in Michigan. I just re-checked the ag dept’s official page and don’t see anything there prohibiting it. It’s correct that you can’t use cream cheese in frosting. If you could point me to where you’re seeing that buttercream is disallowed, that would be helpful. If it were in-fact not allowed, then I don’t think it would make a difference to use a cooked butter icing.

I don’t think the method of canning matters so much. The main thing is making sure that the pH is at 4.6 or below. There are 3 methods for ensuring the pH, and you must use one of them. There are some other requirements for acidified foods, like including the batch number and date on the label. I’d recommend reading through all of the info on the Arkansas law page, especially the Allowed Foods section: https://forrager.com/law/arkansas/#food

Yes, hot sauces would be considered an acidified food, and as long as yours stays below a 4.6 pH, then you should be able to sell it with VA’s basic exemption. No inspection needed, but you may need a general business license. You can ask around at the farmers market to see if vendors needed anything else to sell from home, or the farmers market manager might know. You don’t need to get a permit from the ag dept.