Can you make food out of your house and sell it

Posted by Damian Roberti on June 2, 2022

Can you make food out of your house and sell it

All right, so it's Damian from Marketing Food Online. So in this podcast, which we will upload onto our YouTube channel, Marketing Food Online, as well, we are going to get into a couple questions from our subscribers. And more specifically, is it legal to sell food you make at home? And can I sell food from home without an actual permit? Can I sell food from home without a permit? These are two great questions. Thank you guys so much for asking them. I'm going to dive into those two specifically. But as always, if this is your first time listening to our podcast, definitely check down below in the description of the video on YouTube. You'll see our podcast outlets. We've got over a dozen of them out there available for you to listen to. And definitely hit the subscribe button if you're watching this on our uploaded YouTube channel or channels, definitely hit that as well. So these are some great questions. And now there are a lot of people who are beginning to start home-based food businesses. We've actually done a lot of videos recently on our YouTube channel and even a podcast in regards to starting home-based food businesses. So much so that in 2020, as a result of what happened, everyone was either out of work or working fewer hours.

Can you make food out of your house and sell it

A lot of people were at home trying to figure out how to make some money. And many of them are actually fantastic cooks or chefs, and they're looking to create some type of food business. But of course, with any type of home-based food business, you need to understand that there is a limit to the type of food that you can make, and it is dictated by each state. So every state, of course, has what's known as "cottage food laws." And believe it or not, some states actually need and require a permit, even if you are incorporating your business and such. Some of them don't even require anything at all and have no inspections of any kind. So it varies by state, so you need to find your state-specific cottage food law. Here on Marketing Food Online on our YouTube channel, you will definitely check out our channel. We have about half of the states we've done videos on. We're working on getting the rest of the states up and running for cottage food laws so you can understand exactly what you can and can't do. And then, of course, there's a ton of resources that we put down below each video to help you out as well. So the first question is, is it legal to sell food you make at home? Yes, absolutely.

Can you make food out of your house and sell it

The first step is that you really need to check your cottage food laws. Find out in your state exactly what is allowed to be made. Normally, no state allows potentially hazardous foods because there are no food products that are time- or temperature-sensitive. Those are things such as what you would find on a food truck, if you're looking for lunches or if you go to a fast food place, hamburgers and chicken, and these types of items that are not necessarily legal to make. Now, with that being said, though, there are quite a few states that are revising or have revised their cottage food laws for 2021. California actually has one that's fantastic. There is a License A and a License B in California. The B license allows you to make almost anything you can think of, and you can sell it to almost anywhere you want; restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, local markets, farmer's markets, and so on. So every state does have a variation of it, but yes, it is completely legal to sell food from your home that you make. Now, Damian, well, what does that mean? You can't make those types of items. What kind of food can you make? Well, normally it's a lot of times it's baked goods, nuts, popcorn, snacks, anything that doesn't have to be kept at a certain temperature for a certain duration of time or it has a limited time for it to expire, of course, as well. So there are a lot of varieties and variations of baked goods, nuts, even teas, even spices. It's one of the biggest videos that we've got on our YouTube channel is our spice videos, and we actually talk about how you can start a spice business from home.

Can you make food out of your house and sell it

Because spices, storing them, or selling them, are not time- or temperature-sensitive, almost every state allows some form of spice blends or spices or something to that effect. Plus, they're very, very big on the markup. The margins on spices are gigantic. So legally, yes, you can sell food from home, but you need to make sure that you're selling the right type of food from home and go from there. So the second question was, "Can I sell food from home without a permit?" Yes and no, because, again, this will be dictated based upon your state's rules and regulations in regards to home-based businesses. Some states, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Florida has no permit, a business license, or anything of that sort. They don't have any inspections either, and they just raised their cottage food laws up to $250,000 a year. That's crazy. That's amazing. So they actually don't specifically require any form of permitting or licensing of any sort. So you want to find out specifically if you actually need to have it. Now some states will not.

Can you make food out of your house and sell it

This is something that you gotta be aware of, too. Some states on the state level will not require a permit for cottage food, but in the local municipalities, such as the county or the city that you live in, the city may require some form of business license, maybe some form of insurance, or the county may require that as well, some permit that they would need for you to create a business selling food. Now, on the city and county levels, they cannot normally restrict you, but you need to also make sure that you're in the right zoning area as well. A lot of homeowner's associations, for instance, HOAs, even though you're in a neighborhood, may not allow home-based food businesses under the HOA clauses, and if that's the case, you can't do it. Now, with that being said, on a state and then city and county level, some of them will require a permit. It's going to be varied and dependent upon the city and county.

Can you make food out of your house and sell it

So those are two really great questions, and they really require a little bit of homework on your part to find out specifically about your state. But yes, many states do allow you to have a permit, and many of the other states, most of them don't have it required at all in order for you to operate a home-based food business. So definitely let us know down below if you've got any other questions about how I can sell food from home without a permit. If you've got that type of question that you have experience with or a question, let us know and we'll definitely get to it as soon as possible. So I'm going to hop on to our next video. Definitely check out our next upload, and since this is our podcast, check out the links down below. You can listen to us on the go, and we'll see you guys in our next video.

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