Emily Hicks

Making a nonperishable item, like a baked good, should be allowed under an exemption, but making hotdogs is probably not allowed. You don’t have to worry about the cottage food law, since this is for a nonprofit, but you should still call your ag dept to determine what is allowed under the exemption for donated food. http://forrager.com/faq/#nonprofit

From what I’ve heard, it’s supposed to be at your home, and pickup only. For what it’s worth, many many CFOs run businesses from their homes across the country, and I’ve never heard of there being a problem. Custom cake makers, especially, have to do things from home because they can’t sell at places like farmers markets. Usually, although the…[Read more]

As long as your products contain at least 75% of your own honey, you can directly sell your honey from your home, at farmers markets, farm auctions, or government festivals within Ohio. All sales must be made in-person, and no license from the ag dept is needed. For fewer restrictions, you should contact the ag dept about becoming licensed as a…[Read more]

Since this is beyond the scope of the cottage food laws, I’m simply not familiar with the rules for this. You should contact your health dept for more info.

It would only work as a commercial kitchen if it’s consistently inspected by the health dept. However, as a CFO, you are not allowed to use a commercial kitchen (or any kitchen other than your home kitchen) for your business.

I think it depends on the county, but your business license will probably be adequate for selling in most other counties (not sure). However, if you sell wholesale outside of your county, the other counties you sell in need to have an agreement with yours. You need to make sure the health depts have spoken with each other and agreed to allow…[Read more]

If it’s not baked, you can’t use a home kitchen. You will need to use a commercial kitchen to start your business. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Sorry, I don’t know about LA. You just need to call the env health dept and ask them.

This would be beyond the scope of cottage food laws, and I simply don’t know. You should contact your health dept.

Nay. You’ll need a commercial kitchen for that. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Did the ag dept tell you that? If not, I’d recommend you call them to confirm. If that’s true, you might need to hire a lab to test your alcohol content.

Oklahoma only allows baked goods under their cottage food law. Therefore, you’d need to use a commercial kitchen to run your business. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Cottage food operations would not be able to use a shared kitchen. You might consider asking on a different forum… maybe Cake Central?

I understand that $20K doesn’t sound like much (I had a similar feeling when starting my CFO), but actually, most CFOs are doing very well to do $20K of sales in the first, second, or even third year. When thinking about a business, it’s easy to think about all the potential it has, and the last thing you’d want is for the law to limit you when…[Read more]

I don’t think that’s allowed, but you could call the health dept to see if the exemption for donated baked goods extends to online sales.

There aren’t typically a ton of requirements to start a fruit stand, but San Francisco is a complicated place. I don’t know all of the requirements, but you will have to ask about zoning rules, as well as speak with the ag dept and probably a few other depts. I wouldn’t be surprised it it’s fairly complex to start one there.