Tracy Mason

Lauren, you need to prepare them in a commercial kitchen and get licensed from the health dept. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

I should also mention that although the bill has easily passed through the House, it’s had trouble in the Senate. That often happens in states, as the two sides are intended to provide balance for each other. But it can be misleading… a unanimous passage by the House does not necessarily mean that a bill is close to passing and becoming law.

It’s a little hard to notice, but Hawaii is also gray on the map. Also, any orange state might as well be gray for any non-farmer. And some states are very restrictive… for instance, Wisconsin’s law only allows canned goods, and Illinois’ law is only useful to someone who sells at farmers markets. So despite appearances, New Jersey isn’t the…[Read more]

Buttercream frosting is almost always safe, but some states and health depts still don’t allow it. Usually this is because they prohibit all uncooked dairy products in cottage foods, even though butter is perfectly safe when left unrefrigerated. So in this instance, I’d say it’s not a matter of whether or not it is perishable, but rather that it…[Read more]

If you are taking a commercially-produced food item and altering it in any way, you are then processing it, which must be done in a commercial kitchen. You can resell some types of commercially-prepackaged items without needing a commercial kitchen, but that doesn’t sound like it would apply in this case. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You need to use a commercial kitchen. You can build one in your home, but that can be very expensive. You will need to talk to the health dept about the requirements for commercial kitchens. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

You should contact the ag dept about selling the teas and syrups… I don’t think you can sell them from your office. I believe you can only sell them at certain public markets and stores, so you might need to produce them in a commercial kitchen to sell them at your office.

I’m not familiar with the laws for selling deodorant, and you can try…[Read more]

Usually the two factors working against cottage food laws are health depts and existing businesses. Many health depts don’t like them because they consider food produced in an unregulated (home) environment to be a potential hazard to the public health that they can’t control. Existing businesses obviously lobby against them for fear of increased…[Read more]

I’d recommend contacting the sales tax division in Pueblo to see what you should be charging. Here’s some generic info about sales tax: http://forrager.com/faq/#sales-tax

Here is some basic info about starting your business: http://forrager.com/faq/#starting

My “advice”, if you will, is to start out small and don’t get too caught up in trying to…[Read more]

Sorry I didn’t see this sooner, Wanda! Try entering “Spiro, OK”, and that should work.

That wouldn’t fall under a cottage food law since you’re not selling it. I think that, technically, you would need to use a commercial kitchen, but most of the people who do this type of charity, like the Burrito Riders, don’t bother.