Ok to Sell Homemade Food (with Permits) in CA

Update: This article was originally published in 2013 and is specific to California. Other states like Texas, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington… have their own Cottage Food laws. Please research your local regulations if you are interested in the idea. 

With the new California Homemade Food Act (AB 1616), as of January 1, 2013, it is alright to sell homemade food direct to a consumer again in the state of California. But don’t paint that lemonade sign yet, there’s more you need to know…

Only certain, non-perishable foods are allowed. Your award winning jam with granny’s secret daub of butter to knock down the foam at the end isn’t going to cut it, or those handmade chicken tamales you got from the lady with a cooler, and neither will my mouth-watering quiche – but breads and most baked goods will. Dried fruit, some candy and basically anything that isn’t eggs, milk, or meat and doesn’t require refrigeration. Please see California’s official guidelines before making any business plans.

Permits are administered at your county level through the Public Health or Environmental Health departments. Counties are supposed to be ready for implementation for this new law by Jan 1, 2013, but some do not have the permitting process up and running yet. Detailed reports will be made as information comes in from these counties, so feel free to add your experiences in the comment section of this article.

Food safety training is necessary for the Cottage Food Operator permit. Because the law is new, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited courses for retail food facility food handlers will satisfy the requirement.

Because you are selling directly to the consumer with a Class A permit, kitchens are self-regulated and not inspected unless there is a problem. Class B permits require a yearly inspection for indirect-to-consumer sales to local restaurants, markets, deli’s and bakeries.

Your products need to be labeled, including the ingredients of the ingredients, by weight. Yearly sales are limited in 2013 to $35,000 and increase to $50,000 by 2015. So if those hotcakes sell, you might even help pay the mortgage with your homemade food. Make any more than that and you need to get a commercial license for your epicurean empire.

a little history

Food safety has been an issue for the consumer in the United States since the beginning of the 20th century when industrialization was on the rise and people began to move to the cities and away from the farms. Before that time food safety meant the control of horticultural disease and answering the one, burning question: Does adding sugar to apple cider in order to increase alcohol content adulterate the cider?* In 1860, this was the focus of governmental oversight to our food supply.

Soon, with the electric light and steam engine came the 24-hour factory and Greed pushed the self-regulating balance of Nature aside for Profit. In 1905, Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle showed the rest of the nation what industrial meat packing looked like in Chicago. The novel is worth reading. Well written and horrifying, even the President, Teddy Roosevelt, took notice.

Other problems arose. Bread loaves were often hollow, and almost anything white was substituted for wheat flour. Consumers sickened with watered down and tainted raw milk from diseased factory dairies asked for protection and got pasteurization with strict standards about what can be sold as “milk” and “bread”. Not to mention the dangers of “patent” medicines prevalent at the time. At the insistence of Mrs. Walter McNab, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and others, more food standards and safety laws were passed at the federal and state levels.

Over time a bureaucracy gathers regulations like my favorite sweater gathers cat hair. Preservatives, refrigeration, commercial kitchens all require oversight…fast forward to San Francisco, California 2010 and we find ice-cream vendors and a 10-year-old’s brownie and lemonade stand shut down in Dolores Park for lack of proper permits. Even Mark Stambler’s award winning bread business in Southern California was causing trouble in 2011 because he baked the bread at home in his hand made wood-fired oven. (Makes my mouth water…)

All this was enough to get the attention of California Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D- Silver Lake) who authored a bill in 2012 allowing Californians the opportunity to eat homemade food from vendors again – provided they have proper food handling training and a permit on file with the local county government.

Well, you knew someone was going to collect a fee for this. It also looks as if the process is more regulated and expensive in California than in other states, but that should not surprise anyone either. Today, we are grateful that now California stands with 32 other states to allow homemade or cottage food sales in some form or another.

The Sustainable Economies Law Center has provided a wonderful FAQ sheet about this new California Homemade Food law, and it’s parameters. Apparently, there is also controversy about what constitutes a “direct-to-consumer” sale and how it may be shipped – although the state’s intent seems clear from its perspective, this is supposed to be about stimulating real cottage industry and getting more local foods into our communities, kitchens and bellies.

Please stay tuned, look for more in this blog as the story expands to include specific information for the individual counties in California. Be sure to do your own homework if this story inspires an entrepreneurial muse – the links embedded in the story are only a place to start. And please, stay involved, your experience with this new legislation is very valuable, you are invited to share it with your comments.

*Answer in 1860: No, but by 1906: Yes, added sugar must be labeled in hard cider. as cited in FDA History.