Posted on 10/30/2014 12:00:00 PM PDT by MichCapCon
“Aunt Karen, your homemade salsa is so good. You should bottle it and sell it!”
You’ve probably said something similar to a relative, friend or neighbor. And this is how many food companies get started – a recipe of homemade hard work, a pinch of encouragement and a healthy dose of risk-taking.
But in Michigan, it is harder for some food entrepreneurs to get started than others, as the state regulates this so-called cottage food industry in a seemingly arbitrary way.
State law does exempt anyone who sells less than $20,000 worth of homemade food from the mountains of regulations, rules and licensing requirements the state heaps on food producers. But this applies to makers of only certain types of food. (And this does not pertain to pet food. To make and sell that, of course, you'll need a license.)
According to Forrager.com, a website devoted to the cottage food industry, Michiganders can make and sell cherry and pecan pies, but not pumpkin or sweet potato. You can roast coffee beans and sell them, but you can’t add water and sell the resulting coffee. Most jams, jellies, nut butters and vinegars are okay, but ketchup, mustard, relish and salsa are prohibited. Finally, you can sell chocolate-covered strawberries, but not…strawberries.
Other seemingly random rules apply to cottage food producers. For instance, food producers cannot sell their food over the Internet – all sales must be done person-to-person. It’s also not allowed to donate your food to someone else who might give it away or sell it. You can, apparently, donate food to someone who just wants to eat it, though. How any of this protects consumers is not clear.
Finally, food may only be produced in a person’s “primary residence,” meaning you’d be breaking the cottage food law if you sold food cooked in the kitchen of your cottage (irony intended).
Public health concerns might explain some of these rules, but these concerns don’t manifest themselves in face of these capricious rules. Regardless, homemade food producers sell such small quantities that it’s unlikely they would ever pose a significant threat to public health. Further, the regulations and licensing mandates required of larger food producers do not eliminate the possibility that they could threaten public health anyway.
Texas recently relaxed its cottage food industry regulations, and witnessed food entrepreneurs from all over the Lone Star State create thousands of new small businesses. Michigan policymakers should consider doing the same and revisit our cottage food industry laws.
(After this, maybe we can reassess the threat that unlicensed dog biscuits might pose to public health.)
The purpose of big-government is to sell monopolies to big-business.
Cheese Burger, Cheese Burger, No Hamburger!
There isn’t a state in the country that doesn’t have similar laws. Michigan however has a conservative leaning outlet that exposes them.
Health and sanitation issues?
Government bureaucracies accumulate laws year after year until society is finally overburdened and strangled by them. How many millions of laws must be on the books by now? Periodically “rebooting” the system is the only way to clear the cache of clutter and restore functionality.
Well, there goes the church and school fund-raisers.
Foods that are usually banned from cottage industry production are those which are prone to spoilage and contamination unless very strict temperature and handling protocols are observed. Think milk, eggs, seafood, and meat. That is the reason why custards such as pumpkin pie or chocolate cream pie are usually not permitted. If it requires constant refrigeration before sale it is not going to be considered a legitimate cottage food.
The limitation to direct sales to the consumer is because these laws are designed as an exemption to requirements for those who produce food on a wholesale basis for resale. It was meant to allow producers to sell at farmers markets, bake sales, church bazaars and the like. It was not meant to permit mass sales to Minnie’s Emporium.
Fresh produce is probably not permitted because sales of produce come under the purview of the Department of Agriculture and not whatever authority has jurisdiction over prepared food sales. I know in Florida a grower’s permit is required. These are (or at least used to be) free.
St. Mary's County, Maryland, had a case of a long-traditional stuffed ham church dinner being the source of a huge case of salmonella poisoning, due to the way the hams were prepared. This annual dinner had become so well-known that as many as 1,400 people attended it. A recipe for disaster. If I'm not mistaken, the restaurant-style kitchens in large churches can be inspected by the county, but because so much food was needed, several individuals prepared some of the food in their homes and there's where the bacterial infection problem lay.
Here is info on the changes Texas made to its “Cottage Food” laws. Please note it does not expand the definition of permitted foods to include those foods considered as likely sources of contamination such as custards or fish dip. Instead it added some foods which pose very little risk to consumers. Some of these may already be covered under Michigan’s Law. I don’t know if Michigan requires every permitted food to be listed or if not being on the banned list is enough for a food to be considered allowed.
http://texascottagefoodlaw.com/
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