Elizabeth

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.

No — it needs to be from home or at a farmers market, event, or roadside stand.

Dried fruit is allowed, but not dried vegetables.

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…[Read more]

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…[Read more]

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.

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…[Read more]