I want to sell my cookies to my local town merchants. Does anyone know if I have to get my kitchen inspected by the public health inspector? Are there any federal/state regulations for food preparations that I need to know about? Is there a good web-site for accessing this federal/state required information? Thanks

-- Tammy Carter (tcarter@mail.arco.com), February 08, 2000

Answers

Tammy ,there are regulations in most states.I would start with your local authorities first.Look in the front of your phone book and go from there.Do you have people lined up to purchase your baked goods , if so ask them .Due a search under your state for regulations and see what you find .Hope you make out well.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), February 08, 2000.

Here in Wisconsin you would have to have a state-inspected kitchen to legally do this. don't know for sure about other states, but check with the authorities, as was suggested, to find out for sure.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), February 08, 2000.

Tammy you didn't say what state you lived in, but here in Ohio the Dept of Agriculture oversees home baking. My wife did it for about 4 years, burnt out one oven and almost killed heself with work. People couldn't get enough of home baked goods and my wife tried to supply everyone. It became a 14/7 job. Be sure you really want to do this. Good luck.

-- Russ Richardson (rumar62@bright.net), February 23, 2000.

Tammy, You can get that information from your local D.E.C. Here in Alaska we need a certified kitchen to sell the baked goods in the stores, but not at fairs, farm markets, bazaars, etc.

-- Tang J. (tang@mtaonline.net), December 02, 2000.

We checked into it for our farmers mkt ,with our local health Dept.Here's what we were told:your name and address, plus ingredients must be on the pkg. to sell at the farmers mkt. Only baked items not needing refrigeration could be sold this way,like bread,cookies. This is info only for a farmers mkt, in our stste.Check with your local health dept for any other reg's.You should be able to do a good business,as another poster indicated.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), December 03, 2000.