Laura deBuys

David, you’re a genius! Thank you! I don’t know why I didn’t think about a used scale. This one you’ve linked to is perfect and not too expensive. I love this community!

I wonder if you could get a used one. Also I just checked WebstaurantStore and they have one for $100: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/14309/legal-for-trade-scales.html?order=price_asc

Yes, David, I agree, they are strict! And it is seemingly near impossible for me to locate an affordable one. The one the DC govt suggested I buy is $300. So, now I’m a little discouraged.

Wow that’s surprising that they’re that strict! I have never looked into NTEP scales, so I’d be interested to hear what you learn.

When processed correctly, hot sauce is perfectly safe. But if best canning practices are not followed, canned goods could potentially be deadly. That’s why homemade acid and acidified foods like hot sauce are not allowed in many states, although the risk is quite low.
Instead, the ag/health dept will require you to use a commercial kitchen and go…[Read more]

Here is some info about that: https://forrager.com/faq/#repackaging
Basically, yes you can do this with unwrapped candy. You mentioned “variety”… the variety resulting from combining candies should be enough of a change for you to not worry about copyright. And I’d also consider how branded the product is in the first place. If it’s a generic…[Read more]

I can’t say that I’ve researched it, but I suspect that many of those laws (I live in CA, so I’ve seen the effects of some of them) would only apply to producers of a certain size.

On top of that, I find that many cottage food producers choose to use the environmentally-friendly packaging regardless, to give their products a higher perceived…[Read more]