Emily Hicks

I don’t think you can use the cottage food law, since the kitchen is not in your primary residence. You should call the health dept and ask if they would allow it.

You definitely need to call your health dept before spending a ton of money on this. I don’t think you can use the cottage food law, since it’s not the kitchen in your primary residence. You can probably do this with a commercial license if you make that building into a commercial kitchen, but you need to be aware of all the requirements that go…[Read more]

No — WA only allows high-sugar jams, jellies, and preserves, as well as fruit butters.

You can make them from home, but you can only sell them at events and at roadside stands. The rules are the same whether you promote your business or not. The person to contact about these rules is Kenan Bullinger at 701-328-1291.

Catering would be different from a home business. Most states have a separate catering license, but I don’t know…[Read more]

Dried fruit is allowed, but not dried vegetables.

You should have gotten your application from your environmental health dept, and that’s where you’d send it. This is the first line in the Business section on the CA law page… please let me know if there’s a way you think I could make it more clear.

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.

No… everything you sell must be baked.

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]

Try calling your health dept to see if they would consider your syrup a “preserve”, in which case it would be allowed under the cottage food law. They probably will not allow it, and if they don’t then your business can’t be done from home. You’d need to use a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You definitely need to pay income taxes and you don’t need an LLC or tax ID. You may or may not need to get a business license — call up your planning division to find out. If you do not need to get a business license, then the state will classify you as a sole proprietorship by default.

Soup like that would not be allowed from a home kitchen. Only dry soup mixes would work. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You can make all of the things you described, as long as they don’t require refrigeration. You need to be incorporating fruits like blueberries or bananas into the batter (garnishing with fruits isn’t allowed).