Ervin Jason

First of all, since this is happening in a church, the cottage food laws aren’t applicable.

Honestly, I’m not sure what the rules are for a church. I know that many large churches are regularly inspected by the health dept. I don’t think you can serve hot food without some type of permit, and you should talk to the 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]

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

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.

I think you’ll be fine, as long as your kitchen doesn’t open up to a bedroom or sleeping space. Assuming you’re going with a Class B permit, just move ahead with the inspection and I highly doubt they’ll say anything about it.

There probably isn’t a written rule about that. I’d say a contractor would be fine. The important point is that it’s only one person.

It should be okay, but you still need to check with your county’s environmental health dept. If they choose to disallow it, there’s not much you can do about it.

Products must be hand-delivered, but since you can have one employee, you can hire someone to deliver for you. You can’t use a delivery service, like UPS.

As a CFO, you are allowed one employee. It is possible to consider a delivery driver to be your one employee.

The intent of the direct sales limitation is to provide accountability by having the producer and consumer meet in-person. Online sales and shipping bypasses that personal interaction, and I think that’s why it isn’t allowed. However,…[Read more]

Cut or processed fruits aren’t on the list, but unprocessed fruits are okay to sell. I don’t think there’s any way to operate a home business that sells chocolate-covered fresh fruit. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

1. You will likely need your DBA first, and the food handler training can come after applying, though it’s easy to do beforehand.

2. You must get approval from the property owner as the very first step. If they do not allow you to use your home for this business, you can’t use the cottage food law unless you move.

3) You need to pay yearly…[Read more]

It depends on what your county allows. Some counties will allow a variety of sweet fruit syrups, while others will only allow what is on the approved list.

No — you will need to use a commercial kitchen to start your business. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Yes, you just report it on your quarterly estimated and yearly taxes.

How do they know if you go over? They probably won’t. But, once you go over, you’re no longer operating legally, so if you got sued, you wouldn’t have any legal ground to stand on. The laws are there to protect you — once you leave their umbrella, you’re no longer…[Read more]