Melissa

Sales need to be made directly between the customer and producer. A farmers market wouldn’t be able to take orders on the behalf of a vendor. A producer could probably do a paper order (pre-order) one week at the farmers market and collect money then, and then fulfill the order at the next week’s market. But I don’t think anything beyond that…[Read more]

It is a non-PHF, but your state probably has different rules for vendors producing on-site at a market (the cottage food law is for items prepared at home). You should check with your area’s ag or health dept.

I think that using a convection oven (but not a microwave) to bake would be fine. Items that are not baked, like fudge, no bake cookies, and no bake candy, would not be allowed.

Every county is a little different. You probably do need to register a business to get a Class B permit in LA, but it shouldn’t be hard to do. At the very least, you can just become a sole proprietorship under your name. When you submit your permit application to the health dept, they will tell you whether you need to get registered with the county first.

The best way to protect a name is through trademarking, but first, I would highly recommend that you don’t worry about that until you are making substantial revenue from your business. Unless you are making waves in your industry, you don’t give people much reason to steal your name. You should be so lucky for people to care about your business…[Read more]

Yeah, that is what I figured. I knew it was an outside chance but I was hoping that someone might have see something that I missed.
Thank you for the insight.

https://ag.tennessee.edu/foodscience/Documents/Getting%20Started%20in%20a%20Food%20Manufacturing%20Business%20in%20Tennessee.pdf

Check this out. Page 9 says…
“It also is important to understand that “acidified foods” (pickled
vegetables, salsas) or “formulated acid foods” (marinades, hot sauces,
salad dressings, etc.) are not considered nonpote…[Read more]

I recently came across this, which should give you a pretty good idea for what’s required: https://ag.tennessee.edu/foodscience/Documents/Getting%20Started%20in%20a%20Food%20Manufacturing%20Business%20in%20Tennessee.pdf

Lindsay, the law isn’t really clear about that, and that’s why I hadn’t specified it on the site. My guess is that the intent of the law is not to allow online sales.

I just re-researched both the home-based exemption and the domestic kitchen law, so those now have quite a bit more information. I’m now confident that you can sell online if you’re…[Read more]

Usually you have to talk to the health dept about getting licensed. There is a lot of paperwork and plans you need to fill out to start a commercial food business, and there may be some training required as well. The letter of the law typically states that food cannot be stored at home, but I know that health depts are lenient about that sometimes.

(Sorry to dig up an old post!)

Just to clarify, could you take orders online and then customers pick them up from you? I know we can’t ship.