Kerry Marchetti-Knarr

The cottage food law in Indiana is specifically designed for people who are selling items that are fully-prepared, packaged, and labeled in their home. Those items can only be sold at farmers markets and roadside stands, and that’s the only way I know of to personally profit from homemade food. I’m not sure about the rules for personal chefs, but…[Read more]

The inclusion of meat, potatoes, or vegetables disqualifies you from being a CFO. I haven’t found that people are resistant to buying from a home-prepared item, but you don’t have to worry about it because you’re forced to use a commercial kitchen to stay legal.

No — not if you plan on making them at home. You need to make them in a commercial kitchen and get a commercial license: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You cannot do that using the cottage food law. If you are only selling commercially-prepackaged cookies and drinks, then there may be a special permit for that. Otherwise, you would need to use a commercial kitchen to run this business. You should contact your health dept for more specific info. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You wouldn’t be able to make the cupcakes in your home kitchen to sell in this way. Instead, you need to use a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

As you know, to sell in restaurants you can’t operate under the cottage food law. You should need a commercial food processor license, which requires you to use a commercial kitchen. Many large churches have kitchens that are inspected by the health dept, but you will need to check to make sure your church has a commercial kitchen. You need to…[Read more]

The dept that manages zoning in your area will likely determine whether a farm stand is allowed where you live. You should also check with the ag dept to see if they have a requirement for what a farm stand needs to be (for instance, it might need to primarily sell produce). Sometimes the requirements for this are county-dependent.

I’m not entirely sure, but this would probably be allowed. You should check with your health dept.

Yes, both of those are allowed.

Yes, all of those items should be allowed. Bagels are the only questionable one, since they’re deep-fried, not baked. You can call the health dept for clarification.

No — no drink items are allowed.