Tracy Mason

Jay, I’m pretty sure that your equipment doesn’t need to follow commercial standards. You should call the ag dept to make sure.

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

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.

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.

The letter of the law is that pets cannot ever be anywhere in the building where production is taking place, regardless of where the pets have access. I’ve not sure if your health dept would overlook that or not.

There is probably somewhere in the food code that says something about commercial licensing and commercial kitchens, and it may even list some requirements about how producers handle food, but you really won’t be able to get the full scoop without talking to them directly.

I don’t think it will matter that the extra building is almost a house.…[Read more]

I don’t think you can use the cottage food law, since the kitchen is not in your primary residence. You should call the health dept and ask if they would allow it.

You definitely need to call your health dept before spending a ton of money on this. I don’t think you can use the cottage food law, since it’s not the kitchen in your primary residence. You can probably do this with a commercial license if you make that building into a commercial kitchen, but you need to be aware of all the requirements that go…[Read more]

Soup like that would not be allowed from a home kitchen. Only dry soup mixes would work. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Are they aware of the “Home Food Processing” program? Some departments are just not aware, and some are opposed to it. If I were you, I’d call up Sheri Morris (the program manager) at 717-787-5289, or email her at shmorris@state.pa.us and see what she has to say. It is possible that your local government could prevent you from operating, but you…[Read more]