By Judith McGeary
The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA) is working on changes to the cottage food law that could open up new opportunities for home-based food producers.
The current cottage food law allows individuals to make certain foods in their home kitchens (rather than a commercial kitchen) and sell them directly to consumers at specific locations, namely farmers’ markets, farm stands, and city, county, or nonprofit events. The current cottage food law does not include honey or honey products; rather, there is a small honey production operation law that is similar, in that it allows the sale of honey directly to consumers when processed in the beekeeper’s home kitchen. The beekeeper provision, though, is limited to 2,500 lbs per year and has the further restriction that the beekeeper or beekeepers family must personally be the one distributing the honey.
FARFA’s proposed changes to the cottage food law would remove the location restrictions, allowing cottage food producers to sell to consumers at any location in the state so long as the transaction remained direct producer-to-consumer. The proposal would also remove the quantity limitation, although in practical terms it would be limited by how much can be produced in an individual’s home kitchen. And since the proposal would allow any non-potentially hazardous food to qualify as a cottage food product, people making honey, honey spreads, or other honey products would be able to take advantage of these expanded opportunities.
More information will be available soon from www.FarmAndRanchFreedom.org
About The Author
The author, Judith McGeary is the Executive Director of the independent farmers advocacy group Farm And Ranch Freedom Alliance.