Tara Stein

Yes, as long as you’re using a commercial kitchen and have the appropriate licenses from the health dept and county, you can sell your hot sauce. You need to call your health dept learn about the steps to become a commercial food processor.

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.

Mariana, Miami Dade is the only county I’ve heard that disallows cottage food operations, but there may be other counties that disallow them as well. Once you go over the $15K limit, you need to get a commercial license: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Requirements vary based on where you live, but here’s some general info on getting the…[Read more]

Neither of those would be allowed because both require refrigeration. You need to use a commercial kitchen to produce these items: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Often an EIN isn’t required for a company that doesn’t hire employees, but you might as well get one if your county is asking for it — it’s very easy and free. You can register as a sole proprietor when you apply for your business license, though some businesses opt for a corporation: http://forrager.com/faq/#llc

Angel, have you read the info on this page: http://forrager.com/law/florida/
I think that will answer most of your questions, and here’s some more info about getting started: http://forrager.com/faq/#starting

You will need to make sure that the goods you make do not require refrigeration, and all of your sales will have to be in-person. Let me…[Read more]

You should be able to, but there are strict standards to abide by. What I’ve heard from the ag dept is overviewed in the limitations section: http://forrager.com/law/pennsylvania/#limitations

You should be able to, but there are strict standards to abide by. What I heard from the ag dept is overviewed in the limitations section: http://forrager.com/law/pennsylvania/#limitations

No — you can only sell at your home, markets, roadside stands, and via delivery to event venues.

Some counties in some states (not sure about PA) offer temporary event permits that allow someone to sell certain types of homemade food for a short period of time. If your county (ag or health dept) doesn’t offer that, then you would need to setup yourself as a Limited Food Establishment: http://forrager.com/law/pennsylvania/

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet heard about the specific requirements in PA. Here is some general info about sales tax: http://forrager.com/faq/#sales-tax

You will need to pay yearly income taxes, as you would with any business. I believe most exemptions revolve around sales tax, and your ag dept might be able to guide you to the correct dept for tax info.

Have you called your health dept yet? Most of the questions you asked don’t have general answers and would be determined by your county or city. It’s not necessarily true that you can run your food business under the LLC that you already have, though sometimes corporations can have multiple businesses associated with them. Basically you just need…[Read more]

You should talk with your health dept to get the proper license. You wouldn’t need to bother with the special licensing for Limited Food Establishments since you wouldn’t be using your home kitchen to produce your items.