Tomiwa Osunkoya

If you’re just using a teaspoon or two of vanilla extract in a cookie recipe, then you don’t need to worry about it. But if it’s a significant amount of alcohol, then you need to talk to your health dept to learn about what permits are necessary.

You won’t be able to use the cottage food law and make your ice pops at home. You should probably double check to make sure that that Berkeley business is actually legal. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

It should be true, but there are some counties with weird ordinances. You can check with your local ag dept, but usually you don’t need a license from them to sell produce. You may need a business license or something else from other depts in your county, though.

I think the main reason is that they just don’t need to. Farmers markets are so popular that most of them have an abundance of sellers lining up. Some have a year-long waiting list. There are also some markets that only focus on produce, which is understandable.

Farmers markets that accept CFOs are usually ones that simply like the idea of…[Read more]

I haven’t heard of someone getting a barcode, but I’m sure it has been necessary for some indirect sales. If it were me, I’d wait until you have deals with the retail stores, and they can let you know if you need a barcode. They may not require one, or they may put a sticker on themselves.

I don’t know and it’s best to talk to your environmental health dept. I’m pretty sure that you don’t need to worry about the ink on your labels. As for the packaging, I think it wouldn’t need to be food safe, but if you’re selling the items in the box, then maybe there’s a rule out there that states that it must be safe.

I don’t think they are. You can check with your environmental health dept, but they aren’t on the list so I highly doubt they will be allowed. (even though they are the combination of two allowed items)

A cottage food operation is only for someone preparing and packaging products in their home kitchen, and then selling them to consumers for consumption outside of the home. I’m not sure if home cooking classes are even possible in CA, but you can talk to your health dept to see what the options are.