Jess

My recommendation is to simply not put nutrition info on labels, and this is what the vast majority of CFOs do. Most small businesses are automatically exempt from needing to include a nutrition facts panel.

Using a nutrition facts calculator is a good way to estimate the nutrition info in an item, but it will always be an approximation until you…[Read more]

Yes, you would need to use a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You cannot do that type of business from home. Instead, you need to use a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Yes, you need a cottage food license.

Correct, it’s almost always illegal for someone to operate a restaurant in their neighborhood, even a small one. When these services get large enough, they have to answer to regulators. One Bay Area service like this (Josephine) recently got shut down by the health dept because they were growing very quickly.

Self-employment tax includes social security tax. That’s the tax you pay in your quarterly estimated tax payments as a business. If you earn under a certain amount, you don’t need to pay quarterly.

I think you need to get a business license from your county or town. The process for getting one would probably be different for each area. You can set yourself up as a sole-proprietorship, and you’d need to get a DBA (doing business as) if you want to operate under a fictitious name (not your personal name).

Getting a CFO license means that you can ONLY use your home kitchen. You do not need to get your kitchen inspected unless you want to sell indirectly (via a third party, like a store). http://forrager.com/law/california/

Some basic info is listed on point #9: https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/3101e/

For more info, try contacting the ag dept: http://www.maine.gov/dacf/qar/index.shtml

Sharon, I see that you signed up for the email lists, which are actually separate from the user accounts on the site. That way, you can have a user account (with community/forum access, CFO creation, etc.) without being signed up to the newsletter or blog email lists.

To change your email settings, click the link in the bottom of any newsletter…[Read more]

You can buy premade items and use them, as long as those items would be allowed if you made them. For instance, if Colorado doesn’t allow frostings that contain dairy, then you couldn’t use a commercially-produced frosting that contains dairy, even if it doesn’t require refrigeration. At least that is my understanding… perhaps the health dept…[Read more]

Your state of Colorado is the only one that has this product-based sales limit.

From my understanding, it’s actually pretty broad, and I think that, at the very least, different flavors of cake would be considered different products. I also think that a chocolate cake and a chocolate cupcake would be considered separate products, but I’m not sure…[Read more]