Kathy Lieber

You can see the CDPH’s clarification in question 9 of their FAQs. The last sentence in that question, about selling outside your county, is no longer true for direct sales, which can now be made anywhere within the state.

Sorry, I’m really only familiar with the laws for items produced from home… food trucks have a completely different set of laws. I’d recommend you talk with the health dept to determine the easiest path for you to take (which probably wouldn’t involve the cottage food law, since you already have a food truck).

Generally speaking, any type of food that needs to be refrigerated is not allowed. Homemade mayo and garlic/oil mixtures are not allowed, and you would need to use a commercial kitchen to produce them. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

First of all, thank you for the response, very helpful.

What about a type of aioli with only garlic and oil as ingredients (no dairy)? Is there any place I can call to get more details on what is allowed and what is not?

Thank you again!

I don’t think you have to have liability insurance, though some venues (eg farmers markets) may require it.

I think you could use that code, but a more accurate one may be 44529, because likely you will be selling your products outside your home.

You will not be able to use the cottage food law. Instead, you need to get a commercial license: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Some counties require every single label with ingredient lists for each and every final product and variation you could possibly make, but I think Sacramento is a little more relaxed about that. However, they may have changed their policy about that, especially considering the fact that their application now asks for “specific foods”. This is one…[Read more]

I agree that it doesn’t make sense from a practical standpoint, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it discrimination. Although your kitchen has been inspected, a commercial kitchen has to adhere to hundreds of other requirements that your kitchen does not. I don’t think the shipping restriction stems from a food safety concern… rather, it’s a…[Read more]

It’s not possible to do what you’ve described by using your home kitchen. You can either do this with your home kitchen and sell in-state (you can sell online, but shipping is not allowed) by following the cottage food law described on this site. If you want to sell nationwide, you need to use a commercial kitchen and adhere to a different set of…[Read more]

Thanks for the quick response David. As far as the shipping restrictions ,for our direct sales, I agree! The Health Department has inspected my kitchen, as they would a commercial kitchen, and their roll is food safety….right? Not allowing us to ship and allowing a business with a commercial kitchen to is kind of a discrimination. Thier roll…[Read more]

I’m not sure if there’s a definitive answer for this question yet. From what I’ve heard over time, it’s likely that although you can’t ship to the wholesaler (or any other customer), the wholesaler can sell your product by almost any means, including shipping it. It still doesn’t make sense to me why Class B CFOs cannot ship their products within…[Read more]

Since it has cream in it, it’s unlikely that it will be allowed. Often fudge is made with evaporated or condensed milk, and it’s possible that a fudge recipe made with cream would not be allowed.

But really, it’s entirely up to your environmental health dept to decide. If they aren’t familiar with the law, then they can seek guidance from someone…[Read more]