David Crabill
@david
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You should have gotten your application from your environmental health dept, and that’s where you’d send it. This is the first line in the Business section on the CA law page… please let me know if there’s a way you think I could make it more clear.
If you’re offering the item in-person after receiving a donation for a nonprofit, then there may be an exemption for you: http://forrager.com/faq/#nonprofit
In that case, you should not be getting compensated in any way.Labeling it as a free gift doesn’t really change anything, since you can actually sell the item to raise money for a cause (under the above exemption).
Otherwise, I think your food gifts would need to be legal in one way or another — either by purchasing commercial items, or by following the cottage food law. The latter option would not allow you to send the gift remotely.
I don’t think it matters what kind of nonprofit it is… if you’re shipping homemade food around as part of a business then that’s not allowed.
Even though online sales aren’t allowed, paying thru PayPal in-person still maintains the spirit of the law and I would say it’s okay to do that. It’s really not much different from using PayPal Here, and I know that’s okay to use. That’s my take on it, but I haven’t verified that with the ag dept.
The main point is that a level of accountability should be involved in the transaction. The buyer and seller should meet in-person before the transaction happens.
No, it is the net weight of the product only.
Yes, this is possible, but not common. Even though I know that it can be done, I don’t really have any examples, other than this somewhat similar one in Maine: http://naturalsociety.com/sedgwick-maine-first-us-town-say-forced-gmo-regulations-fda/
I believe that you can, but you should probably check with the county’s health dept first. For instance, I know that Miami-Dade won’t allow any cottage food sales, but that is the only county I know of that prohibits them.
No… everything you sell must be baked.
Saralyn, make sure you read through Florida’s cottage food law first. There are specific foods that are allowed, and nothing that needs refrigeration or heat to stay safe is allowed. Also, all of the food preparation, packaging, and labeling must happen back in your home kitchen. If you want to warm something up at the stand, then it would have to be done in its packaging.
Try calling your health dept to see if they would consider your syrup a “preserve”, in which case it would be allowed under the cottage food law. They probably will not allow it, and if they don’t then your business can’t be done from home. You’d need to use a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
You definitely need to pay income taxes and you don’t need an LLC or tax ID. You may or may not need to get a business license — call up your planning division to find out. If you do not need to get a business license, then the state will classify you as a sole proprietorship by default.
