Santina Staino

Elizabeth, thanks for letting us know. I’ll update the page by the end of the weekend.

I should also mention that although the bill has easily passed through the House, it’s had trouble in the Senate. That often happens in states, as the two sides are intended to provide balance for each other. But it can be misleading… a unanimous passage by the House does not necessarily mean that a bill is close to passing and becoming law.

It’s a little hard to notice, but Hawaii is also gray on the map. Also, any orange state might as well be gray for any non-farmer. And some states are very restrictive… for instance, Wisconsin’s law only allows canned goods, and Illinois’ law is only useful to someone who sells at farmers markets. So despite appearances, New Jersey isn’t the…[Read more]

Yes but NJ is the only one left according to the map.

This is what I found so far on this site which looks promising, what is the next step to get the law passed?

Committee Voting:
AAN 2/24/2014 – r/favorably – Yes {5} No {0} Not Voting {0} Abstains {0} – Roll Call

Session Voting:
Asm. 5/22/2014 – 3RDG FINAL PASSAGE – Yes {78}…[Read more]

Usually the two factors working against cottage food laws are health depts and existing businesses. Many health depts don’t like them because they consider food produced in an unregulated (home) environment to be a potential hazard to the public health that they can’t control. Existing businesses obviously lobby against them for fear of increased…[Read more]

Why is NJ not passing the law? I don’t understand this at all. The last state with no law, what is the reason? Many people would benefit.

June

Why is NJ not passing the law? I don’t understand this at all. The last state with no law, what is the reason? Many people would benefit.

June

Technically both states’ laws could govern the sale. At the very least, the laws for your state will come into play, which means that you wouldn’t be able to sell any homemade food, even if it was sold out-of-state.

Some states disallow sales of homemade food from other states, even though they allow their own citizens to sell homemade food in…[Read more]

Usually there are no ag dept licenses for selling your own produce, but when it comes to selling others’ produce, I simply don’t know. You should call your ag dept for more info.

This would be beyond the scope of cottage food laws, and I simply don’t know. You should contact your health dept.

Yes, that’s doable but usually quite expensive and complicated. It’s likely that the commercial kitchen would have to be separate from your primary kitchen. Unless NJ has very lenient standards, you can expect to pay thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for that remodel. I would personally recommend renting at first and proving your business…[Read more]

I don’t know if it will be legal. The requirements for being a personal chef vary greatly among areas… you should contact your health dept to get accurate advice.

No, it wasn’t passed and there is still no cottage food law in New Jersey.

You need a commercial license, which will free you from almost all of the limitations you’re concerned about: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You do need to talk to your health dept and I think Etsy is a good place to start online. However, local sales are usually an easier starting point for getting a food business off the ground.