Alicia Gey-Sankuer

No. It refers to things like maple syrup and sorghum syrup.

Eli, jams and jellies sold under the cottage food law need to adhere to CFR 21 — this requirement is listed in the law itself and cannot be overridden by a health dept. So the short answer is no, what you are doing is not legal. You need to use a commercial kitchen to produce low-sugar jams. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Carole, my understanding is that a health dept cannot regulate a cottage food operation. It is possible, I suppose, that a city hall could prevent your business, even though the health dept cannot.

If they say no, I’d recommend making sure that they’re aware of the cottage food law — many govt depts are not. Also, it might help to communicate…[Read more]

I just checked out CFR 21 again, and although that is usually pretty confusing to me, it does look pretty clear that a blackberry jam needs a 47/55 ratio. Also, this seems correct to me… jams and jellies typically need more sugar than fruit.

In the case of the CFO jams you’ve seen in the market, that’s likely a mistake by the producer. In the…[Read more]