Raechel T.

Debra, any cottage food bakery would be considered a business. Usually you don’t need to get an EIN unless you have employees. You don’t need to pay extra for a DBA if you use your own name, but you still might have to get a business license. And yes you can request an ID number from the ag dept to put on your labels.

That should be fine as long as you’re not doing any production in/on the trailer (at which point it would be considered a food truck).

It’s not entirely clear. Ohio specifies on their site that they allow: “chocolate covered pretzels or similar chocolate covered non-perishable items”. An unpunctured and uncut apple is nonperishable, but is it “similar” to a pretzel? They also specify that if something is not explicitly allowed, then it is disallowed. My guess is that if you sell…[Read more]

You can do this with NC’s cottage food law. You are exempt from the requirements of needing to use a commercial kitchen for production. You can use your home kitchen by following the requirements described on this page: https://forrager.com/law/north-carolina

I’m so glad that you’re wanting to help improve the law! Delaware really needs to. Reach out to the Institute for Justice and see if they have any plans or connections. You can contact Jennifer McDonald at jmcdonald@ij.org

You can also read about my own experience: https://forrager.com/behind-the-scenes-of-a-cottage-food-bill/

I’d recommend listening to Episode 6 of the podcast: https://forrager.com/podcast/how-to-improve-your-cottage-food-law-with-erica-smith/

I wasn’t aware that Louisiana has changed their law. Do you have more info about that?

That is correct. You can read the law here: https://law.justia.com/codes/louisiana/revised-statutes/title-40/rs-40-4-9/

If it passes it would be positive. It wouldn’t change anything about the existing law, but would give another avenue for people to sell with less red tape, and also a way to sell acidified and fermented foods.
https://forrager.com/bill/new-york-a5836/

Any frosting without dairy or eggs would be allowed. You can look into basic icings, vegan frostings, or purchased shelf-stable frostings.

You can use commercially-produced oils in your baked goods. The “no oils” category means that you cannot sell oils (like infused oils) to consumers.

It is not. The dough would have to be baked to be allowed.

Yes you can make yeast breads but I’m not sure about pre-ferments. I’m guessing it would be fine.

Yes, you can have both. You would need a separate permit to use the commissary kitchen, of course. Can you confirm that St. Louis County does not allow this law: https://forrager.com/law/missouri-individual-stands/