Rita Veiga

I believe that you can, but you should probably check with the county’s health dept first. For instance, I know that Miami-Dade won’t allow any cottage food sales, but that is the only county I know of that prohibits them.

No… everything you sell must be baked.

Saralyn, make sure you read through Florida’s cottage food law first. There are specific foods that are allowed, and nothing that needs refrigeration or heat to stay safe is allowed. Also, all of the food preparation, packaging, and labeling must happen back in your home kitchen. If you want to warm something up at the stand, then it would have to…[Read more]

Try calling your health dept to see if they would consider your syrup a “preserve”, in which case it would be allowed under the cottage food law. They probably will not allow it, and if they don’t then your business can’t be done from home. You’d need to use a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You definitely need to pay income taxes and you don’t need an LLC or tax ID. You may or may not need to get a business license — call up your planning division to find out. If you do not need to get a business license, then the state will classify you as a sole proprietorship by default.