David Crabill
@david
active 2 days, 4 hours agoForum Replies Created
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Erik, all your food prep needs to happen in your home kitchen. You can give out samples, but they need to be prepackaged at home. To make the samples on-site, you would need a different kind of license.
On a different note, I’m surprised that you even got pancakes approved. They are not baked and have a higher moisture content than most non-potentially hazardous foods. They probably should get refrigerated, and that takes them out of the cottage food category. Of course, it depends on your recipe and how you make them.
Syrups are not part of the cottage food law in Illinois. I’m not sure what the rules about production are, but you might start by asking the health department.
Custards are not allowed. There should be a number of farmers markets that allow cottage food operations. They may require a business license, but not a food processor license from the health department.
Are they aware of the “Home Food Processing” program? Some departments are just not aware, and some are opposed to it. If I were you, I’d call up Sheri Morris (the program manager) at 717-787-5289, or email her at shmorris@state.pa.us and see what she has to say. It is possible that your local government could prevent you from operating, but you should talk to the person at the state level first. If they didn’t allow you to do it, there would be no other option for you to make food from home, aside from building a commercial kitchen there, which is prohibitively expensive.
Crystal, I can tell you that a cottage food permit is for those only preparing food in their home kitchen. Since you are not doing this, then the law won’t apply to you. As for what’s the best way for you to sell your pre-made goods, I really have no idea. I am totally unfamiliar with the process for using your home as a sales venue outside of the cottage laws. I’m sorry that I really don’t even know where to direct you, other than being able to direct you away from the cottage food laws.
Yes, as long as the sales are face-to-face, and you are selling items that are on the list of allowed foods, you should be fine.
Agnes, I don’t like being the bearer of bad news, but I have to be honest by saying that aside from you moving to a another county, or getting the law in Miami-Dade changed, there is not a way for you to legally sell your homemade goods. You need a license and need to be making your items in a commercial kitchen, unless you want to run your business under-the-table, which many startup bakers do.
Miami-Dade is the only county I know of (so far) that doesn’t allow cottage food operations. For you to operate in another county, you do need to be living there, so you would not be able to use a friend’s kitchen in another county.
No, items with meat in them are not allowed.
You may only sell from your residence, farmers markets, farm stands, and public events like fairs and festivals. Aside from that restriction, though, you should also know that the food must be produced from your kitchen. That means that if you live in a dorm, and use a communal kitchen, you would not be able to sell what you make there. But if you have an apartment with friends, then food made from that kitchen could fall under the cottage food laws.
The actual law language says labels must include “…the date on which the food product was packaged, the net quantity of the food product…”
I’m not sure if the law is referring to net weight, or if you could simply put the number of cookies on the label (because of “net quantity”). But you can’t go wrong if you just put the net weight. As far as I know, it doesn’t matter how the info gets on the label, as long as it’s on there. So you could actually write the weight of the batch on the label when you package it. However, as a cookie maker myself, I’d say that if you are using a standard recipe and weighing out the ingredients as you make it, and using a portion scoop for consistent sizing of cookies, your final bagged weight should be pretty consistent and predictable.
As for the “produced on” date, it sounds like it’s really just the day you bag your cookies.
The above is based on what I’ve seen done before, and some of it is intuition. There are actually “labeling specialists” out there. If you try contacting health departments and can find one, they could give you more concrete answers.
