Tracy Mason

Sarah, this would probably be fine as long as you are producing the food yourself and selling the items yourself. The “retail store” prohibition is referring to indirect sales being disallowed. Also, commercial food establishments probably cannot sell homemade food, so installing a commercial kitchen may actually prohibit you from using the…[Read more]

No — you need to produce it in a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Hi Lauren, I think that’s totally dependent on what you are selling! For instance, custom cakes are best done from home. What are you planning to make?

Hi Anita, I’m very sorry to hear about your sister.

I’m sure there are some organizations in SoCal, but I don’t personally know of any. There are a couple of Facebook Groups for cottage food operations in CA, and I think that would be a better place to get ideas. It would probably be best for you to become a member of those groups (Group 1; Group…[Read more]

Even when an item is given away for free at a public venue, it could potentially pose a risk to the public health. I doubt you can do coffee or tea, but it might not be too hard to acquire the permit to make those and offer them. For water, I really have no idea, but I’d like to think that that would be fine, assuming it is city water. Obviously,…[Read more]

NJ doesn’t have any cottage food rules, exemptions, etc. Since the doughnuts will be made in a commercial kitchen, this should be possible, but I’m not sure of the specific rules. You will still need to label them (probably in the commercial kitchen), get a food business license, etc. Since you are not actually preparing the food, and the baker…[Read more]

I’ve removed the captcha test for now, until I can figure out what’s going on with it.

Rex, sorry you’re having trouble. There is also an audio option on the captcha test, in case that helps. I am going to send you an email about this.

Yes, that should be allowed as long as you are personally selling the items at the concession stand.

Sorry, you wouldn’t be able to use the cottage food law for either of those items. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You’ll need to get licenses for all three (maybe not #2), but I’m not sure which ones. You must prepare the water kefir in a commercial kitchen. For #1 and #2, contact the health dept. For #3, contact the ag dept.

Jackie, I’m not aware of the specifics for NV, but everything you said sounds about right. If you are only going to sell one cake per month, then I suggest you save some money and just give away the cake for free.