Cottage Food it’s really the idea for to help people start a business!!

A way to build their business. Especially in winter when they are maybe not as business. It’s Friday morning, October 20, 2017 and I am super excited because I reached out to Ed Evanston in 2015 after I was at the AERO expo, which is taking place this weekend in 2017 and looking to the data and his episode was listened to a lot of times and is in the top ten most downloaded shows so I asked him to come back and he said you shoud interview Nina because she does that now.

I do always like to kind of ask about your very first gardening experience. did you grow up in Montana?

We didn’t do a  lot of gardening. My first real gardening experience was when I was getting my masters at UC Davis and I decided we needed to do something with this polot of land and Davis is a great place to grow tomatoes so I fed everyone with those tomatoes that year, but this year I kind of put a bed of

I got involved with Montana masters gardeners. Been doing that the last 2 years. This year I’ve been really involved with our Helena community gardens now.

Today we are here to talk about cottage foods.

General info about cottage food laws about things throughout the United States… we did kind of a comparison against the laws throughout the United For small farmer community it’s really a way they can build their business….

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’ve been working here with the food and consumer safety section for a year and a half now. Jumped right into cottage foods mostly becaue of my background. I have a 

• Masters in Food Science
• PHd in food micro biology. 

I’ve always been interested in food and what grows on food and m

training people about different topics we cover. 

Questions kept coming up about different cottage foods and people kept coming to me and asking

• what do you know about this food?
• do we have to worry about this new food?

I took over the program about a year ago

providing advice to sanitarians who review the process and giving advice on what is acceptable and what’s not

What is a cottage food?

• basically a cottage food is going to be a food that is NOT requiring refrigeration or temperature control.

something you  can leave on your counter for days and not worry about getting sick from.

We have a variety of products that are included.

Do you want to go through some of those?

some ideas

what we are seeing in terms of people and what we are seeing

As of last week we had

• a 153 different registrations
• over a 1000 products are registered

popular area

• breads
• cakes
• pasteries
• pies

A lot of home bakers out there selling their goods in terms of cottage foods!

It will also include besides those items

• nuts
• nut mixes
• snack mixes
• jams
• jellies

don’t allow they require further processing to make sure they are safe

• dry spice and tea mixes

We are seeing individuals making teas

• popcorn balls
• cotton candy
• fudge and other candies that require cook step

Something that can be left on counter and not require refridgeration

• honey

several registered individuals that are processing honey and adding flavors.

Raw honey you don’t need a cottage food license to sell

variety

listed in our information that

another product that you are considering then you need to work with your local sanitarian to see if we can approve that product.

We are seeing lots of cookies and cakes and baked goods. I wish I could take them.

What about eggs?

Eggs are not covered under cottage food laws they are actually covered through Department of Live Stock. There are regulations that allow you to sell them.

farmer’s markets

food is a complicated subject

certain items are covered under food of consumer safety

Department of livestock

farmer’s markets

• you can sell eggs
• rule there
• in terms of eggs
• wholes sale eggs full of cracks and stored at 45º or less, don’t need a cottage food license..
• cottage foods allow you to take those things you sell at the farmer’s market you want to sell at other venues like craft fairs

Out of your home

• as long as your selling it directly to the consumer
• don’t necessarily
• dropping it off at their home or meeting people
• expands your ability
• with the cottage food

your getting licesnsed/registered one time registration for your own home kitchen

allows you to bake foods at your home

purchase the foods from you

allows you to step into business without making the investment to prepare at

• that’s what we’ve found
• started to do some education
• over the summer at the farmer’s markets that the cottage food law exists
• what they could do with their products…

sanitarians locally in the counties

this is a way they could go beyond that limited.

It’s $40 one time registration fee.

You can register as many products as you want.

I think the longest list is about 100 products that they are at home and selling

cakes and things like that for friends neighbors

word gets out

register

and due as a business out of their home

wedding cakes

some limitations

move into things that require refrigeration

some buttercream frostings do qualify as a cottage food it just depends on the formulation

there are recipes that have enough sugar and not so good things in them for

It went into effect in October 2015!

October 1st the first registration was October 9th, approved the first registration. People were enthusiastic being able to sell their products that were made at home. Talked about in the previous legislature. That’s what we see across the US. Have gone into effect in the last 10 years. Made in a home kitchen.

some require the kitchens to be inspected. Which is good we don’t have the manpower here in terms of that. We’re middle of the road on

states allow to sell from home or other venues

limited to only sell form farmers markets or home only

some states don’t require registration

we don’t require safety training

individuals to get food safety training

many states have a limit on the amount of sales you can do

we do not

they have a Dollar limit of $5000, $10,000 and $20,000

indirectly

needs to be a direct sale from producer to consumer

if you’re making it you’re selling it to the individual.

sticky point

want to have someone else say it

want the consumer to be able to ask questions about product

labeling

we’re along with most states on that.

sometimes that’s a struggle

guidelines on those

pretty straightforward

customer can come back and contact you if they want more

really good increasing your business

vary in terms of what they allow

most include baked goods and candies

some don’t allow jams or fruit butters

dried fruit

some states do some states do

terms of products

don’t allow that other states allow

most popluar is vinegars

pickled foods as well

usually they require more controls in how they produce to make sure they’re safe and they don’t lead to food

that’s something you need a retail license for then a cottage food

more safe guards

ph of the solution

being able to  avoid things in those foods…

think abut it the food on our list

foods that cause food bourne illness

food and consumer safety

food bourne outbreaks

we know

if someone makes it and leaves it on their counter

might spoil

not going bad because a food bourne

fruit pies

but not custard pies

custard need to be refridgerated

most

people don’t realize it fruit tends to have a fairly low ph

acid conditions kill off the bacteria

jams and jellie

fruits are

have acid in them

acid acts as a natural microorganism killer

keeps the micro organisms from growing

ph

kills off

jams and jellies can last a very long time if they are canned correctly

things you find growing will be mold

bacteria that we worry about making you sick

mold can make you sick too

we have info on our website

the food and consumer safety

.mt.gov

cottage food and your state name it will give you a link

in our state

the local health

environmental health

local people will take your registration

environmental health office

they will have the registration

form that you fill out

info about where you are located

turn in the items

recipes

trade secrets

office

sanitarian keeps those in a confidential file or destroy them or return them

look over the items and how they are produced to make sure they are going to be a safe item

most items it’s pretty quick to approve them

strawberry jam or jelly

complicated recipe

evaluating those

items

100 items may take longer to review them

10 different

it has to list the ingredients

there’s a lot of people out there with allergies or intolerance

buy at the store

it lists what’s in that item.

people need to know what’s in that item

you’re revealing how you make it

what goes in there

ways to say

spices and flavorings if they are in a small

weight they in the recipe

there’s a variety of different tools and you

Labels

on your label you do’t have to include nutritional info

• name of the product
• the ingredients
• your name and contact
• who’s producing it
• how much is in the package

if we register together

living in the same household

be made at the registered home

can’t go over to your buddies house

make it there

your own place

can have more then one owner of the operation

many are joint operations

mother and daughter

one of you needs to live at the place that is the home kitchen

Mike and I could get registered

give our operation a lovely name

you would be aware

Tell me about your first gardening experience?

I grew up in California, we did a little bit of gardening at home. My mom grew flowers, we didn’t do a lot of vegetable gardening. My first

when I was a student

I planted tomatoes

Davis is great for

so many tomatoes I fed

those couple of summers