Amy Huffman

I agree that it could be more clear, and part of the reason that it currently isn’t clear is that there are no rules or requirements for getting started. What you see on that page is all the rules there are… no health dept license or inspection needed. One thing you should do, however, is call up your planning division and ask if there are any…[Read more]

Joan, baking for friends and family becomes a business when you start selling your homemade food items to them, or doing monetary transactions for your goods elsewhere. There is no technical definition of a cottage food business, but basically, it’s a for-profit business that sells homemade food products.

If the health dept finds that you are…[Read more]

Flour is most definitely non-potentially hazardous! (I’m surprised the ag dept doesn’t know that)

What are you using to mill the flour? Are you doing it in your home kitchen, or with some specialized equipment in a different building? It appears that the cottage food law may apply to you, but you might have special circumstances that prevent you…[Read more]

So sorry for the confusion. “Enacted” means that Missouri does have cottage food laws, but oddly, each county implements them differently. HB 617 was introduced as a way to create a universal cottage food law for the state, and that hasn’t been enacted yet.

But you should talk to your county’s health dept and see if they currently allow you to…[Read more]

Marianne, your Class B permit is for indirect sales, and I think this would qualify for that, as long as the person selling it is doing so within your county (or in other approved counties, where the necessary agreement with the health depts exists). Indirect sales usually happen at food facilities or grocery stores, but it also includes someone…[Read more]

For interstate sales of any food item, you need to make it in a commercial kitchen, not your home kitchen. You can call your health dept to learn about how to get licensed as a regular food business. If you only want to do intrastate sales, vanilla extract might be considered a cottage food, but I don’t know for sure for Oregon. That would also be…[Read more]

The cottage food law is intended for people who prepare food in their home, and it would not apply to you. If you are only trying to resell commercial, prepackaged foods, I think you can just get a sellers permit and don’t need to become a cottage food operation. I’d recommend you talk to your health department and see what they say. The label you…[Read more]

Brandy, I just found something that I had missed in the past: “A license is not required for a domestic kitchen type bakery that is operated in behalf of a nonprofit institution or is otherwise not operated for profit.”

So it looks like you’re good as long as you’re only doing baked items.

Ultimately it is up to the county to decide what the rules are, and it does differ between counties, but I’ve never heard of a county saying that. Are you sure they weren’t referring to prepackaged goods that you may be reselling? I guess I could see them making a case that you could list “Nestle’s chocolate chips” and that the consumer could find…[Read more]

Here is a good video from Felicia Hill who setup the cottage food law in WA: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3710115150063&set=vb.212823708752853&type=2&theater

I think this would be allowed, but you might still want to confirm by calling the dept at 850-245-5520.

If your packages have different weights, then yes, you need to weigh each one. You can write the weight on the package by hand. I’ve also see sellers print out labels with the same weight on each of them, and then they add enough of the item to reach it (for instance, 3 oz of fudge). For cookies, if you use a portion scoop, the weight of each…[Read more]

1) Yes
2) Yes
3) No
4) You should contact your local planning division and see if there are any other requirements for your area. Otherwise, you’re good to go!
5) As long as your church is hosting a public event, then you should be able to sell at it. However, are you profiting or just selling there as a charitable donation to the church? If it’s…[Read more]

I don’t think there is anything, other than that you should call your planning division to find out if there are any requirements for your specific area.

Jean, you cannot be the owner of both a commercial food business and a cottage food operation. It sounds like even though the items you are selling would fall under the cottage food law, you will need to get a commercial permit to sell those items, which should be much easier for you since you already have a commercial kitchen setup.

Brandon, my general advice is start small. Just try a few of your best products out at first and see where that goes. Aside from the info on the Mississippi page, did you have any specific concerns?