David Crabill
@david
active 1 day, 16 hours agoForum Replies Created
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I agree that it could be more clear, and part of the reason that it currently isn’t clear is that there are no rules or requirements for getting started. What you see on that page is all the rules there are… no health dept license or inspection needed. One thing you should do, however, is call up your planning division and ask if there are any county-specific requirements for your business (such as a generic business license). Hope this helps!
Joan, baking for friends and family becomes a business when you start selling your homemade food items to them, or doing monetary transactions for your goods elsewhere. There is no technical definition of a cottage food business, but basically, it’s a for-profit business that sells homemade food products.
If the health dept finds that you are running an illegal business, then they may fine you or may just give you a warning. You’re not supposed to be doing it, but they know that a lot of people do (many of whom do not know that it’s illegal to sell homemade foods), so oftentimes they’re lenient at first.
Flour is most definitely non-potentially hazardous! (I’m surprised the ag dept doesn’t know that)
What are you using to mill the flour? Are you doing it in your home kitchen, or with some specialized equipment in a different building? It appears that the cottage food law may apply to you, but you might have special circumstances that prevent you from taking advantage of it.
So sorry for the confusion. “Enacted” means that Missouri does have cottage food laws, but oddly, each county implements them differently. HB 617 was introduced as a way to create a universal cottage food law for the state, and that hasn’t been enacted yet.
But you should talk to your county’s health dept and see if they currently allow you to sell homemade food — they probably do.
Marianne, your Class B permit is for indirect sales, and I think this would qualify for that, as long as the person selling it is doing so within your county (or in other approved counties, where the necessary agreement with the health depts exists). Indirect sales usually happen at food facilities or grocery stores, but it also includes someone who sells your product at a farmers market.
The person who wants to market your goods should have the necessary licenses before doing so, but they still need to be aware of the limitations of your Class B permit. The label on the product needs to be your label, not theirs. It needs to have your business name and address (unless your address is in the phone book), and it also needs to have the other requirements, including your permit number and the disclaimer about the product being produced in a home kitchen. You said that it is their product, so maybe they wouldn’t be okay with that. They also should be aware of the sales limit you have, and that once you hit that, you won’t be able to produce their goods until the next year.
Maybe the reason why AB 1616 doesn’t really cover this use case is because it is unlikely that a business would want to go this route, given the limitations of the law. The cottage food law is really intended for people who are testing their food business concept. But in short, I think this arrangement would be legal if the seller is aware of and abides by the limitations.
For interstate sales of any food item, you need to make it in a commercial kitchen, not your home kitchen. You can call your health dept to learn about how to get licensed as a regular food business. If you only want to do intrastate sales, vanilla extract might be considered a cottage food, but I don’t know for sure for Oregon. That would also be something to ask the health dept about.
The cottage food law is intended for people who prepare food in their home, and it would not apply to you. If you are only trying to resell commercial, prepackaged foods, I think you can just get a sellers permit and don’t need to become a cottage food operation. I’d recommend you talk to your health department and see what they say. The label you use would be the one that comes from the bakery. If the items you’re buying do not come with a label, then I don’t think you can resell them, and in fact, you might not be able to resell bakery goods regardless. I’m not really sure what will work for you, but I am sure that the cottage food law would not apply.
Baked potatoes, or other cooked vegetables, are considered to be potentially hazardous foods. Cottage food laws are generally only for items that are non-potentially hazardous, or in other words, items that do not need refrigeration or heat to be kept safe.
The reason cottage food laws are limited to non-PHFs is for safety reasons. PHFs have the capacity to grow harmful bacteria and are seen as being more likely to cause foodborne illnesses if the producer doesn’t take the correct precautions. I’m sure that most home producers would take the correct precautions, but it is because these kitchens are generally unregulated by the health department that they only allow sales of these kinds of foods to come from standard food businesses that make all their goods in a commercial kitchen.
My hope is that someday, people will be able to do what they always used to — make all kinds of food from home and sell it. I agree with you that it’s not that dangerous, but right now the food economy is in a state where it believes that regulation and rules are the only way to ensure the safety of our food.
Brandy, I just found something that I had missed in the past: “A license is not required for a domestic kitchen type bakery that is operated in behalf of a nonprofit institution or is otherwise not operated for profit.”
So it looks like you’re good as long as you’re only doing baked items.
There is an allowance for unlicensed sales at religious or charitable events, and I also think it would be okay if you were simply giving your food away as the donation itself, but I don’t think this private nonprofit business would be included in those. This question really brings up a gray area that I don’t think has been covered in the food code, so it would be up to the health dept to decide and you should call them. But my guess is that this would not be allowed without some kind of license, but the fact that it is an optional donation might have an impact. I’d be interested to hear if this isn’t the case.
