Sheri Saskowski

That sounds like great news! I read the article, and if I understand correctly, this will only change things for the Cottage Food Law. Will any of the changes affect the Home Kitchen Operation Law (cupcake law)? I would love to see the cap on gross receipts removed for that as well!

Yes, my daughter and I got the Cupcake Law passed in Aurora, IL in January, 2017. We simply started with and email on the city website (I sent it in the fall of 2016, and they didn’t contact me until December or January). We didn’t need to do a letter. We just worked with someone from the city and she invited us to the meetings with Aldermen and…[Read more]

Yes, you need to use a commercial kitchen, and you need to get the proper licensing and training from the health dept. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

First of all, I just want to clarify that the Home Kitchen Operation law is only in a select few counties. If your county is one of the ones that allows homemade baked goods to be sold under that law, then I’d assume that you would still have to package and label the product. The reasons for packaging and labeling are based on health and safety…[Read more]

Yes, you can start any kind of food business if you use a commercial kitchen, but you’ll also need to get the necessary licenses to run your business, which can be complicated.

No, I haven’t heard anything.

Cara, the health dept should know the rules since they are the dept that is in charge of enforcing them. If they can’t give you an answer, then there may not be one.

I don’t know of anyone who has compiled a list of counties, but perhaps some health dept has one. Try calling up Cook County and seeing if they know more. If you can’t find a list, it’s possible that one doesn’t exist. If you spend the time to create one by contacting every county’s health dept, I’d be happy to incorporate it into the law page so…[Read more]

Can anyone tell me which counties we can operate as a home baker to sell baked goods from home? Im new to this and new to Illinois as well and not sure where to find out which counties allow this. Thank you

I’m not sure if that is allowed under the cottage food law. The law recently changed to give health depts the ability to allow other types of nonperishable foods, so I recommend that you ask your health dept. If you want to pop the popcorn at the market, you wouldn’t be able to use the cottage food law.

It would not be legal. Aside from the fact that your box sale likely wouldn’t sell well without the cookies (the box is not really what you’re selling), typically food laws place the same requirements on publicly-available foods, regardless of whether there is a charge for them or not.