David Crabill
@david
active 1 day, 17 hours agoForum Replies Created
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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.
You can only use your own home kitchen for your cottage food business. If you wish to use a commercial kitchen then you’ll need a commercial license.
As long as you are living in the apartment and the landlord gives their approval, using the apartment’s kitchen shouldn’t be a problem.
No — the cottage food law is only for in-state sales. You also wouldn’t be able to cook from a kitchen in CA and try to use CA’s cottage food law, if you’re living in Nevada. You need a commercial license to sell out-of-state.
There are different ways to conduct a pH test. The simplest way is to buy test strips that will give you an approximate measurement of the pH of your product. The accurate way to test your item is to send it into a lab.
When health depts need to verify that a product is non-potentially hazardous, they will ask you to send it in for a lab test. Both pH and water activity level are required to determine if something is non-potentially hazardous, and water activity is not easy to measure at home.
I really have no idea if Utah requires lab testing for certain items, but they probably do on these kind of items. You should get in touch with Rebecca Nielsen, who is the cottage food coordinator for UT — her number is 801-538-7152.
Under Ohio’s cottage food law, you can’t sell online or use a commercial kitchen. You need to get a commercial license: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
