David Crabill
@david
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The list of allowed foods that matters is here, under questions 2 & 3: http://www.agri.ohio.gov/foodsafety/docs/CottageFoodOperation-factsheet.pdf
Ohio’s law used to be more limited and then they passed an amendment that expanded the list of allowed foods. It appears that only foods that are on the list are allowed. I don’t think there’s a reason why vinegar is not on there, other than that someone didn’t put it on.
Drying your own corn sounds a little more like something they intentionally left off. Even though cornmeal is totally safe in it’s final form, they consider the potential risks required to get it to that stage. Most states do not allow dried vegetables, even though many allow dried fruit.
From the resources I can see online, it doesn’t look like you could produce either of these items. “Mixes” would include cornmeal you buy from the store, but I don’t know if processing it yourself would be okay. However, I could be wrong and I suggest you talk to the ag dept to be sure.
I believe you can’t sell dry or prepared tea without a commercial license. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
What state are you in? Usually they cannot, but it depends on your state.
Brownies are a non-potentially hazardous baked good and are allowed.
I don’t know, but you can find out by contacting the Food Compliance Officer at 919-733-7366.
The health dept’s job is to help you with that stuff. I don’t know anyone that helps in setting up a food business. You really need to call them yourself (since you know what your business is going to entail) and if you want to, you can hire a secretary of sorts to handle paperwork.
I don’t know if you have to approve you’re on the lease, but you do need landlord approval. Generally, you may only run a cottage food business from your “primary residence”. Usually that’s where you primarily live, but not always (a college dorm is still a secondary residence, even if the student lives there most of the year). If you have a vacation home, you could not also run your business from there.
Oh wait, sorry. I reread your question and I see that I misread it. I thought you said “prohibiting the sale of baked goods in a residential building”, but I see that it is “prohibiting the sale of goods baked in a residential building”, which changes a lot!
So in this case, they are preventing any CFO from operating, and they are basically disregarding the law that is in place. Yes, they do have the right to do that, and no, there isn’t anything in MA’s law that prevents them from doing that. Your only real option (aside from moving) is to try to create an amendment with a congressman that adds wording to the law that would prevent them from prohibiting you from operating.
Oh… if it’s a zoning issue then you really can’t do anything about it, other than try to advocate for them to change their ordinances. What I was referring to was when a county will prevent any CFO from running a business. It sounds like you can still run your business, but the zoning laws are restricting sales from home. If it were me, I’d just cut my losses and sell elsewhere (you’re probably not going to change the govt anytime soon), and probably try to convert any home sales to delivery opportunities of some sort. The only other viable option I can think of is moving to a different county!
Amy, the technical term depends on what state you live in, but generally, if you are operating under your state’s cottage food law, then it should be sufficient to simply state that you are a cottage food operation operating under the laws. Some CFOs have decided to link to this site in case customers want to learn more about the legality of your business.
