David Crabill
@david
active 17 hours, 23 minutes agoForum Replies Created
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Nicole, you are not required to get a license from the health department to sell your food, but it’s very reasonable for your farmers market to require a business license. It’s the same basic license any business of any type would get, and it’s usually pretty easy — you would apply with your city or county. It’s also relatively inexpensive… probably not more than $100 per year, and maybe much less.
Mitchell, it depends on your state but the short answer is technically, probably yes, you do have to get a permit even for one day. Some states don’t require sellers to need a permit to produce cottage foods, while others totally prohibit this kind of sale — they don’t even allow home sellers at all.
In almost all states, you can sell your goods at certain types of events without a permit. Church bake sales, school fundraisers, or other non-profit, charitable events allow one-time sellers in this way. Also, food swaps don’t really fall under the category of sales and aren’t seen as being illegal, if the fair is like that.
If the fair charges admission, and there is an application process to become a vendor, then they probably won’t let you in if you’re not allowed. My advice would be to just try it and see how far you can get in the process. Except for some states, it probably wouldn’t be worth it to get a permit just for a day. If you get into the fair as a vendor and you are illegal, just be aware that many states do have health officials walk around events like that and check vendors. But, illegal sellers are relatively common, and the health departments are used to that fact, so if they found you out, then they’d likely just shut down your stand and inform you of the law and ask you not to do it again. It’s unlikely you would be fined.
April, I’m not the ultimate guru on this but I did a little research for Florida (I’m more familiar with California’s tax laws, but Florida’s look similar). The bottom line is that it doesn’t look like you need to charge sales tax.
One important factor for charging sales tax is whether the product is intended to be consumed on the seller’s premises. As a cottage food operation, since you’re giving your cookies to customers for them to consume off of your premises (your home), you don’t have to charge sales tax. You’re also supposed to be packaging your cookies in a way that shows the customer that you intend for them to take them to go (e.g. placing them in a box). If you were selling at a farmers market and warming your cookies there and had a table and chairs next to your stand for your customers to eat at, then there might be a case for charging sales tax, but only if all of those apply, and even then it would be a gray area.
Also, if you’re selling at an event that charges admission, like a fair, then you probably have to charge sales tax, but in that case the event organizer should know.
I didn’t see anything about there being a difference with custom made goods. I think it has to do more with where and when the product is heated. There are a lot of rules about this… if you want to read more, here’s the document I looked at. Please let me know if you learn any more about it.
Sandy, I personally know many cottage food operations in CA that make caramels and have had them approved. However, some counties are a little stricter than others, but I still don’t think any would say no. What county are you from? Of course, the only way to know for sure would be to talk to your county’s environmental health department.
The law says no “cream… fillings“. In the case of a caramel, the cream is incorporated into the candy (not a filling) at a lower ratio and thoroughly baked… it’s much different from a cream pie. In general, if something in the approved food categories doesn’t need to be refrigerated, as I’m sure your caramels do not, then it should be fine.
Leslie, I’ll try to tackle your questions. Keep them coming!
This site is really dedicated to cottage foods, or value-added homemade foods. If you want to sell uncut fruits and vegetables, then you should be able to do that without any kind of permit. Eggs and milk are a little different… the eggs will probably be okay, though some states have regulations for those. Some states do allow raw milk sales, but I’m not sure if Florida is one of them. Sorry, I haven’t done the research on those!
So what you see on the tables are cottage foods, as that’s the focus of this site and that is what these limitations are referring to. It means that you are preparing certain items in your home kitchen, as you probably know. Cottage food laws are really intended to help get someone more easily started in a business — kind of on a trial basis. If you go over the $15,000 then you do need to become a commercial food processor at that point. It’s difficult enough that these laws were created to avoid it, but then again, for many years that was the only way to start a food business, with no proof of concept and with no advanced money from the business. It takes time and depending on the equipment you need, could require a significant investment of capital. If you have access to a commercial kitchen for free, and it meets your needs, then that would drastically reduce the barriers for you to go that route.
Technically, you would not be liable to get sued if a customer got sick, as long as you were following the rules as a legal operation. The special statement on your labels acts as a notice to the consumer that they are taking a risk by buying your product. However, this may not prevent someone from trying to sue you, and they may even be successful. I have never heard of this happening, but it’s possible enough that many cottage food operations get some form of insurance for their business, which usually costs $200 – $400 per year.
